"No, he called me about eight to preapprove it."

The office did not use government censors to preapprove all articles and radio programs.

With the newer systems, tenants can preapprove visitors by arranging to have their names put in the computer.

The state's strategy has been to "preapprove" selected sites, changing the zoning and clearing the way for various permits, so that a microchip company choosing that site would not have to wait long before building.

Among the measures on the table are electronic processing of customs reports, bar codes on trucks and ways to preapprove shipments from companies that are certified as having adequate security when they load up.

The department knows about Conlon's "side job," as he refers to his writing career; top brass had to preapprove articles he began publishing in The New Yorker, as "Cop Diary," by Marcus Laffey, starting in 1997.