LAPD Seeking Help Creating a Web Site

The Devonshire Community Police Station has everything it needs to enter headlong into the 21st century and onto the information superhighway with a new site on the World Wide Web--except the expertise to build it.

Los Angeles Police Department officials seek volunteers to help create, update and monitor a Web site using connections and software donated by a resident.

“Gradually we are getting this together,” said Sgt. Bill Thomas of the Devonshire Division. “We hope to have the site up on the Internet in a month or so.”

Although a couple of people have volunteered their time to the site, and a few police officers are familiar with the system, Thomas said, “the more [volunteers] the merrier” because no one person can spend as much time as needed to maintain the site.

The station home page is envisioned as an electronic newsletter, with information about crime statistics and community announcements, he said. “We thought that since this is the computer age, everybody is accessing the Internet and we have a lot of community interest things that people who have access to the Internet would find useful,” Thomas said.

The department will provide the content for the page, while the volunteers will be asked to create graphics and put the information on-line. For information about volunteering for the project, call Thomas at (818) 363-1726.