The telephone approach allows students to call from school, from home, from a friend's, or from a pay phone. And there's no question that teens are comfortable talking on the phone, so this approach makes it easier for them to communicate. On the other hand, the telephone approach leaves no lasting record of the report, unless messages taped or transcribed and checked for accuracy. E-mail and web sites have proved successful in reaching out to many of today's teens who are electronically literate. Carwise Middle School in Palm Harbor, Florida, has both an e-mail box and a web site for crime reports.
Many youths have e-mail addresses that offer ready anonymity.
Both e-mail and web approaches can provide printed reports to send to appropriate authorities. Last but not least, Youth Crime Watch members, especially those on patrol, and school administrators receive written and oral reports of crime concerns. There are still students who trust the human link more than the plastic box or the electrons of phones and e-mails. Ideally, a crime reporting system will try to put more than one system in place to open anonymous reporting opportunities to the widest numbers of students. There is no magic combination that is right for any setting.