The move by the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department to open a telephone tips line is a good step toward public safety.

The setup will give callers a chance to report issues or crimes without tying up a regular line or an emergency line. A call to the regular sheriff’s number is answered by a dispatcher trained to glean as much information as possible, a factor that Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. acknowledges could deter someone from calling. Callers using the tips line, 547-1690, or the e-mail address, sherifftips@otsegocounty.com, will be able to make reports anonymously, deputies say.

Checking tips called in by the public is an important part of investigation work, Devlin said. The program will be without cost to the county because it involves reconfiguring existing resources, he said.

In a world where children and adults frequently are reported as missing, and ``terrorism’’ is in daily media reports, having a tips line is crucial not only to solving crimes but also to enhancing public safety.

To be effective, the tips line must be publicized. That could include printing it on business cards of deputies and investigators, distributing it to social workers and posting it in laundromats and hotels.

Given today’s level of technology and forensic science, it’s difficult to believe that a telephone call could be untraceable. However, we take the sheriff’s department at its word. Using a pay phone is a way to further protect identity.

The county and sheriff’s department also must evaluate the program regularly, perhaps every six months, and adjust it to improve access and response.

We look forward to hearing about the program’s success.

Recall delay unacceptable

In this Information Age, it’s amazing the amount of data that can be recorded, stored and transmitted.

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Grocery stores can track your purchases and spit out coupons to tell you that you can save 75 cents off cat food if you come back next week.

So how is it that consumers were the ones telling the store, not the other way around, when a product was recalled last week?

A snack food called Veggie Booty was recalled by the manufacturer because of possible contamination with salmonella. An Oneonta customer who had bought the product at Wal-Mart called the store two days after the recall and found that the company had no information about it. In fact, a spokeswoman for the store said Wal-Mart didn’t even carry that product.

Not so. One of our reporters had no trouble finding it on Wal-Mart’s shelves. The question is, in this day of technological advances, how could this information not be readily available?

We have no doubt that some bureaucratic red tape has to be cut through, and therefore there will be some time between a recall being declared and a product being pulled from the shelves of a store. However, this process should not take days.

We don’t know why Wal-Mart didn’t know about the recall sooner.

We only hope the delay didn’t cause any illnesses that could have been prevented had the product been pulled earlier.