Redwood City, CA – March 13, 2012 – The Redwood City Police Department today announced it is now using Nixle to send important and timely public safety information to residents. Nixle Connect allows the department to communicate with the public via text/SMS, e-mail, and Internet posts at no cost. Nixle will be used as the primary resource for distributing secure information to residents over the department’s web-based platforms.
Communications from the Redwood City Police will range from emergency alerts to routine day-to-day information including traffic advisories, missing persons reports, public safety announcements, press releases for high-profile cases, awards and recognition for department efforts, and other relevant information to the area.
“Social media reaches deep in to the daily lives of the public. It would be negligent for the police not to make use of this avenue to reach the people that we are empowered to serve. Meeting the public where they live, on Nixle, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, is having an effect similar to putting officers in communities on foot patrol – it creates a partnership. This partnership is having a profoundly positive effect on how the Redwood City Police Department conducts the business of law enforcement,” said Police Chief JR Gamez, Redwood City Police. “We searched to find the best method to deliver secure messages across multiple web-based platforms while maintaining our community’s need to rely on the credibility and authenticity of our transmissions. Nixle was the obvious solution.”
Redwood City residents can sign up to receive free, real-time safety information by texting their zip code to 888777 or by visiting www.nixle.com. Once registered, users can customize the types of alerts they wish to receive via text, email, and online.
“The Redwood City Police Department strives to be a forward-thinking agency and we believe that having a secure presence in the social media arena will be a powerful tool that we can use to improve the situational awareness of our community,” continued Gamez. “We take great pride in the professionalism of the men and women of our organization and in the innovative ideas that they bring to law enforcement and to the safety of our community.”
Currently more than 4,800 government agencies nationwide have adopted Nixle for their means of real-time communications with residents, and more than 700,000 citizens have signed up to take advantage of the service.
“Nixle simplifies communications between public safety officials and residents without compromising security,” stated Eric Liu, Nixle’s CEO. “Our service offers departments across the nation a tool to disseminate information quickly and easily across multiple channels, including social media. We are excited to welcome the Redwood City Police to Nixle.”
Year-to-year usage figures for 2011 show that participating agencies created a total of 81,200 Nixle messages during the 12-month period from January to December, or 6,766 per month. Over 24.3 million SMS text messages were sent for an average of 2 million each month, and over 44.7 million e-mails were sent, over 3.7 million each month.
About Nixle
Founded in 2007, Nixle is the leader in trusted notification services for law enforcement and government agencies. More than 4,800 government agencies throughout the United States use Nixle to communicate with residents via SMS mobile text messaging, email, the Web, and mobile applications. Over 700,000 citizens rely upon the system. Nixle is strategically partnered with the National Law Enforcement Telecommunication System (Nlets) to offer the only public messaging service on the International Justice and Public Safety network, a system owned by the fifty states and serving every criminal justice agency in the US and Canada. Nixle is a privately held company based in San Francisco, CA.
For more information, visit http://www.redwoodcity.org/police/ or www.nixle.com.