Morristown police today announced a free service that can provide alerts to residents via text messages or email. Local officials are working with Nixle.com to send alerts about missing or wanted persons, traffic alerts and community advisories to subscribed residents. Users can request information within a quarter-mile radius of their homes, according to Detective Lt. Steve Sarinelli, spokesman for the Morristown police.
In a statement, Police Chief Pete Demnitz said testing of the service has gone well. Mayor Tim Dougherty said he received a text alert that routed him around a traffic tie-up. “I was able to change my route and got to my meeting on time. I think this will be great for our town,” he said.
Registration details are at Nixle.com. Below is the full text of the police announcement.
FROM THE MORRISTOWN POLICE:
(Morristown, New Jersey) –The Morristown Police Department is pleased to announce that we will be utilizing a new communications service, effective immediately, that allows us to send important, valuable community information directly to residents using the latest technology.
The Nixle Community Information Service allows us to create and publish messages to be delivered to subscribed residents instantly via cell phone text message and/or email. Notifications can also be accessed online at Nixle’s web site at www.nixle.com.
Messages may include community alerts for wanted or missing persons, traffic alerts for accidents and road closures, community advisories for upcoming events and many other relevant safety and community event information.
“We are very excited to be able to provide accurate and timely information to those who live, work and travel through Morristown” says Police Chief Peter Demnitz. He added that the service had already proven extremely valuable during the testing stage and community feedback had been very positive.
Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty said that he was pleased with the opportunity to provide this service to the members of his community and had already seen first hand how the system could be of use. “I received a message on my cell phone telling me that there was a traffic delay in town from a car accident. I was able to change my route and got to my meeting on time. I think this will be great for our Town.”
The service is reliable and free for residents to use. The messages can be sent specifically to residents registered within a ¼ mile radius, giving them the opportunity to receive trustworthy information relevant only to their neighborhood. Residents decide from which local agencies they want to receive information.
Subscribers can also choose the way in which alerts are received, whether it is by email, text message, or over the web. There is NO spam and no hidden cost. Standard text messaging rates do apply.Nixle builds on the foundations of other public-to-public communication services, such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, but adds a key component: security.
When citizens receive information from our agency via Nixle, they know it can be trusted. “Nixle is a first-of-its-kind tool for communities that need to provide critical information to their residents,” said Craig Mitnick, Founder and CEO. “In today’s world, you have to trust the source of your information. Residents of Morristown can rest easy that the local messages they receive are authentic.”
Residents of Morristown and those in neighboring communities can immediately begin receiving pertinent information via text message, email, and web by registering at www.nixle.com. We are very excited to have you experience it for yourself.
About Nixle
Nixle is a community information service provider built exclusively to provide secure and reliable communications. It is the first authenticated and secure service that connects municipal agencies and community organizations to residents in real time, delivering information to geographically targeted consumers over their cell phones (via text messages), through e-mails and via Web access. Nixle has secured a partnership with Nlets (the International Justice and Public SafetyNetwork), allowing local police departments nationwide to send immediate alerts and advisories. Privately funded Nixle,which has offices in New Jersey and California, is free to all governments, their agencies and organizations, nongovernmental organizations and consumers. For more information, visit www.nixle.com
