American Notes LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles is so deluged with street gangs -- 70,000 to 100,000 members at last count -- that simply keeping track of them is a monumental task. To help with the job, the city's probation officers are testing a new electronic Rube Goldberg device. Whenever word comes that a rumble could be in the offing, a $19,000 voice-analysis software system is supposed to telephone gang members on probation and warn them to stay off the streets. The computer first asks whoever is on the line to state his name and a few key words, then matches the responses with prerecorded voice samples. During violent periods, those whose voices don't match up are subject to punishment, since the probation office requires them to be in their homes.

Before the system can work, officials concede, voice prints of all gang members must be obtained. Then officials have to figure out why gang members would pay attention to a recorded message when the repeated pleas of parents, teachers and police to stay off the street often go unheeded. Still, if a pilot study is successful, the system will be extended to the rest of Los Angeles County and will be tested in other states.