This is to suggest that, contrary to the excuse that the police can't act to help organized stalking victims, there is one way they CAN, but so far the police don't seem to have considered the method I'm about to describe.

The reason the police haven't used this approach is I am sure it is not considered "proper police procedure." But in fact, the police do use this method, on their COLD CASES.

I suggest that busy detectives could simply start a file on organized stalking complaints. That requires no more time than opening any other case. From that point forward, as complaints and follow up information roll in, one specific detective ("one specific" is KEY to making this work) would BRIEFLY scan each submission and file it.

One type of complaint which might be especially useful is where targets report licence plate numbers of people they suspect of being perpetrators. Since the file would be confidential, targets would also be allowed to submit photographs of possible perps.

From that point forward, I suggest, the detective's thought process is fully automatic. Anyone qualified to be a police detective and open to the project will automatically, and practically effortlessly, ponder the submissions, once in a while. No need to set aside a lot of time for that.

From the pondering stage, the detective will occasionally get an idea, a lead, he can check out when he/she has time. To this point, there has been no intrusion into the time needed for regularly assigned cases.

Since organized stalking involves human beings, at least some of whom live or operate in the detective's jurisdiction, my claim is that without much effort, a detective honestly open to the reality of organized stalking will nab his first perp. From that point on, police management can allocate more resources to eventually stop the local stalking group.

This laid back, part time approach, which does not demand a large amount of the assigned detective's time, I suggest will work and will be the beginning of exposing and stopping today's stalking groups.

** IMPORTANT: This initiative would require the street savvy of an experienced detective to work, because the perpetrators would field a number of fake targets, to take up the cognizant detective's time, making him or her want to throw up his or her hands in disgust. The fake targets would act crazy, moan, cry, and demand action, and generate a pile of questionable reports.

This requires that the cognizant detective be briefed ahead of time about the certainty of perp tactics. As long as the cognizant detective has a good grip on the sleazier side of human psychology (and most detectives must in order to do their job successfully) the detective will develop a sense which will allow him or her to filter out the genuine complaints from the fakes in most cases.

The police should also be told they may not be able to distinguish real reports from fakes in all cases, but that it is very important that they move ahead and take the reports anyway, and that they don't have to spend lots of time trying to decide about the fakes. TIME will help a great deal in distinguishing real reports from fakes. (Time is what we targets use to distinguish fakes.)

The detective can significantly reduce his or her time by requiring all initial reports be made IN WRITING, out in the front lobby, attended by front desk staff, not detectives. When the cognizant detective has time, he or she can do interviews by telephone, further reducing the time spent.

A second file, for probable fakes, will keep the probable fake reports available, but separated from the probable genuine reports. The sheer importance of handling this huge crime, affecting something like one person in a hundred, is too important not to try because of probable perp fake reports.

And one interesting side effect of perp faked reports is, they risk showing themselves to police by making faked reports.

Eleanor White