Police Department offering new electronic alert service
FELICE E. KRYCIA
Sun associate editor
The Town of Hamburg Police Department has joined the world of electronic messaging in an effort to get as much information as possible to the most people.
With the department’s newest tool, people will be able to get instant notification via e-mail and text messages on their cell phone for things such as road closures from traffic accidents, missing person alerts and warnings of criminal activity in the area.
According to Assistant Police Chief John Conlon, before Police Chief Carmen Kesner retired he assigned Officer Timothy Crawford to research computer/cyber applications that they could use to enhance community involvement with the department.
“It was while he was doing this research that he recently came across a communication service called NIXLE, which is being used by the City of Tonawanda,” said Conlon. “We looked it over and thought it would be a good thing for him to pursue.”
“This is a great set up,” said Crawford. “It is a free service for the town and for the residents (though text messaging rates would apply) and it is a great way for us to get information out to the public in a hurry.”
The NIXLE service allows the police to send out alerts, that usually takes only a few seconds to be delivered to either computer e-mail accounts or as text messages on cell phones.
“We will be able to alert people who sign up for the service about problems in the area, like power outages, road closures, driving bans, criminal activity in specific areas, along with community events,” said Crawford.
Only a few people in the police department, like the police chief, shift supervisor and the senior public safety dispatcher will be able to send out the alerts, which will be monitored by the dispatchers, said Crawford.
“Possibly the patrol officer at an incident which needs to have an alert sent out will be able to do it from their computer in the patrol vehicle, but it would need to be cleared through the shift supervisor,” said Crawford, who added that this is still a work in progress and all the logistics have yet to be worked out.
Sr. Public Safety Dispatcher Thomas E. Taylor demonstrated how the system worked.
“If I needed to post an alert, I would get into the system (which has many security levels for the administrative end), type it up, send it and the people who are signed up will be notified in a matter of seconds,” said Taylor.
“This will be will be a asset to the department,” Taylor said.
The more people who join, the better the service will be, he added.
“If the alerts only go to a dozen people, then it won’t work,” said Crawford. “This is a case where the more people sign up the better it is. We encourage residents from neighboring communities to join too. What is happening here often impacts them too, especially during road closures.”
“We want to be able to use this as another tool to reach out to the community,” said Conlon.
“It is important to get the community involved with us,” said Crawford. “This is will be a great way for the residents, businesses and schools to be in touch with what is happening right away.”
To register for Hamburg alerts, go to www.nixle.com and then click on the “register now” button and follow the instructions.
You can also visit www.townofhamburgny.com and hit enter and see the alert link in the scrolling banner.
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