New Police Alerts

Tools

Story Published: Aug 25, 2009 at 10:40 PM PDT

By Stacy Lilienthal

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SUNNYSIDE -- Now when crime happens in Sunnyside, you can hear about it right on your phone or computer.

"It's as simple as opening up a text message or e-mail, there's nothing to it," Charlotte Hinderlider, with the Sunnyside Police said after days of tests. The new program alerts you to crime in your community. It's free for you and was free for the city of Sunnyside. "Say we had an abandoned child or a lock down in one of our schools. we would be able to get that message out to the community about what that is. And that way we don't have that panic," Deputy Chief, Phil Schenck hopes.

The company is called Nixle. When you sign up, it will notify by text message or email about trouble in Sunnyside. Police say they plan to send out alerts about safety, road blocks, and even public meetings. And Nixle promises it won't send you spam.

This program in Sunnyside is for urgent alerts. There is another site for a number of area cities called crime reports.com. As we've told you, this new site can additionally send you weekly crime e-mails and show maps so you can notice trends. Those trends can tell you the places to avoid. "Things like where thefts are happening, where burglaries are happening, car thefts are happening. It lets people know it might be something people will want to watch out for," Schenck said.

Added information at your fingertips. It could all make for a safer community.

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