Ringing in the Suspect

THE TELEPHONE Ringing in the Suspect

The phone can ring at any hour of the day or night. There on the other end of the line is the unidentified voice, mouthing obscenities or threats. The receiver in most cases is a woman, often in a city apartment. Until now, her only way out of such repeated and nerve-shattering harassment has been to change the telephone number and have it unlisted. For, as she quickly discovers, simply hanging up does not break the circuit, which is controlled by the caller. To apprehend him, the police tell the victim to keep the caller talking until they can trace the call and, in some cases, have her make an appointment with the caller.

Abusive calls have increased so much in recent years--New England Telephone Co. estimates up to 1,500 a month are made in its area--that A.T. & T. Chairman Frederick Kappel has called for a crackdown, and individual Bell companies are now declaring statewide "wars on obscene calls." Their most effective weapon is an electronic device known as "called-party holding," which the telephone company hooks up free. It consists of a small signal box that is linked to the nearest central office. By simply pushing the button on the box, the victim signals the central office, which immediately locks the circuit. Even if the caller hangs up, the circuit remains open and the telephone company can begin tracing the call.

The device is not foolproof. Calls made from party lines make tracing tough. But already it is paying dividends in terms of arrests. With slight variations, New Jersey Bell Telephone has been using it since last fall, Bell in Pennsylvania since the first of the year. In Rockland, Me., the device pinpointed a 17-year-old boy who had been pestering a family with several teen-age girls. And in Massachusetts it has led to a dozen convictions in the past six months on charges of harassment and use of obscene language, resulting in sentences ranging from a $200 fine to three months in prison.

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