EVERETT — When Everett police wanted help identifying an armed serial robber, they turned to a new cyber-alert system to get the word out and ask for help.
Police are using www.nixle.com to help notify people about crime in their neighborhoods, traffic delays and crime prevention tips. The department went live with the system last month, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said.
“We wanted an additional avenue to be able to communicate with the public in a more direct, one-on-one basis,” Goetz said.
The Web site is geared specifically toward government agencies and provides a secure site.
Everett police are the first in the state to use Nixle.
In the past, the department relied on e-mail lists to pass along alerts about criminal activity and crime prevention tips. They’d send out notifications to neighborhood leaders and rely on them to pass the information along.
Now people can sign up to get alerts and news directly. They can choose to have the information sent to an e-mail account or receive text messages on their cell phones. They also can log on to the Web site and read notifications posted by the department.
The Web site allows police to send out alerts based on location. If there is a rash of car prowls in the Silver Lake area, they can alert only those people who live nearby, instead of sending out a citywide message, Goetz said.
That way people don’t get flooded with information that may not affect them, he said.
“We don’t want to overburden people, or they’ll just delete them without reading them,” Goetz said.
The department opted to use this site instead of social networks such Twitter or Facebook because officers don’t have time to effectively respond to inquires posted on such sites, Goetz said.
The Nixle alerts provide contact information if people have additional questions, he added.
Along with the police department, the city also is using the site to notify residents about news and upcoming events.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
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