Radio Smart Talk for Wednesday, March 17: Through most of the 20th century, laws pretty well started and stopped based on geography – the laws and jurisdictions that applied to you and me depended on where we were, physically. Then came the advent of the World Wide Web. Cyberspace is routinely described as "the wild west" when it comes to expression and legality. It's a dominant and powerful medium in which just about anyone can say just about anything just about any time regardless of the consequences. How can the free expression this technology provides be squared with laws designed to protect citizens from those expressions deemed inappropriate?

(York) -- The Harrisburg Police Department recently began conducting regular foot patrols of certain parts of the city. But departments that cover more rural areas, including one in York County, have also found success with such efforts. Officers from the York Area Regional Police Department have been regularly walking the streets of Red Lion for a little over a year. Those efforts are now expanding to include York Township and Dallastown due to $16,800 in federal stimulus money. Chief Tom Gross says, as with foot patrols in cities like Harrisburg, officers in smaller towns are able to form important relationships with business owners and residents. "The biggest benefit from the foot patrols [is that] they establish ways of getting information that they didn't have before and address some minor crimes that they wouldn't normally address or that people wouldn't normally call about." Gross expects his department to conduct up to 16 hours of foot patrols per week, which amounts to a slight increase over last year. He notes last year's effort was funded largely by a grant from the Red Lion Area Business Association. York Area Regional covers six boroughs and two townships.