BRIEF: Police sponsor safety programs

The Department of Public Safety and the Victim Support/Crime Prevention Unit will be sponsoring a Crime Prevention Outreach on Saturday at the Divinity School parking lot at 42nd and Spruce Streets. In the "Stolen Auto Verification Effort" program, police will give interested car owners a decal to place on their cars. The decal will give police permission to stop the vehicle if it is being driven between midnight and 6 a.m., thus preventing theft. University Police will also hold a program to prevent bike theft in which officers will engrave bike owners' social security numbers on their bike frames, as well as other identification information. This information will then be recorded in the University Police's computer system "for quick, easy retrieval by officers," Lieutenant Sue Holmes said in a statement. "The Club" and a bicycle anti-theft device will also be sold at discount prices. The program is co-sponsored by the 18th District of the Philadelphia Police Department. -- Jorie Green