_.jpg "Idle the Iguana.")
Idle the Iguana has been the Source’s mascot since we launched in January 1999, and in 15 years he has made a New Year’s tradition of offering a slate of wishes and predictions for the coming 365 days. But lately he’s been getting restless and he recently asked for the chance to stretch out a little. So from time to time, he’ll be offering opinions and suggestions on the news of the day.
Is there any aspect of life today that has changed as much as communications? Computers, sure, but that’s only part of the change I’m talking about. So many of you walk around with a phone in your pocket that is more powerful than any computer that existed 60 years ago. (I have one too, but I’m an iguana, so I don’t have pockets.)
Sometimes I wonder if people have thought about what this means.
A little while ago Police Commissioner Rodney Querrard was talking about how the community has played an important role in reducing crime, especially homicides, in the territory. And he’s right – the police can’t do their job protecting the community if the community doesn’t pitch in by reporting what they know when a crime takes place or is about to.
Calls from "concerned citizens" have gone way up, Querrard said, and that’s great. But he expressed a little disappointment, even surprise, that there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in reports from and rapport with teenagers.
High school students have plenty of contact with police officers and other authority figures in positive ways on their campuses. Yet there hasn’t been much of an increase in tips from that part of the community, and it’s not because young people don’t trust the police.
Here’s the last line of a typical police report. See if you can spot the problem.
"Anyone with information on either of these cases can report by calling detectives at 1-340-714-9834 or 1-340-715-5522 …"
Lord knows it doesn’t take an iguana to figure it out. As far as teenagers are concerned, that line didn’t give them a place to report what they know. Because teenagers typically don’t make voice calls. They send texts, and those big old desk phones wired into the walls of at the police station typically don’t take texts.
C’mon guys! It’s not 1978! Rotary phones are as dead as disco. To today’s teens, making a phone call is something their parents might do, but it’s not how they communicate.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center said 83 percent of American adults own cell phones. Adults preferred to be contacted by voice call, 53 percent to 31 percent. But kids today? They prefer to text, and it’s not even close. Cell owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day – that works out to more than 3,200 texts per month – and the typical older adult cell phone owner sends or receives 50 messages per day or 1,500 messages per month.
Young people don’t want to call a detective and talk. They don’t even want to call 911 if they can help it. They want to send a text.
Now, to tell you the truth, I don’t text that much, but it’s not because I’m old. I’m an iguana. No opposable thumbs and my claws get in the way. So when I pull out my smart phone, it’s usually to make a call. Or play Candy Crush, but that’s just me.
If you want to get kids reporting when they know something’s going down, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a number where they could text tips? And then publicize the heck out of that number and have someone standing by to actually receive the text in a timely manner?
Just seems logical to me that if the police and other government agencies want to get the community’s input, they ought to make it easy for the community. And in the case of the teens and young adults, that includes recognizing how they prefer to communicate and taking the steps so they can do so.
Anyway, that’s one lizard’s opinion.
