Sentinel The Shorewood
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Voyager Media Publications • www.shorewoodsentinel.com
STORM WARNING
Shorewood police encourage residents to sign up for emergency notification system
Vol. 18 No. 26
By Clare Walters For the Sentinel
W
ould you have liked an email giving you a heads up about the recent spring storms? Or, could you have used a text message warning you about April’s DuPage River flooding? In the wake of the recent severe weather that occurred both locally and nationally, Shorewood Police are encouraging residents to sign up for its emergency communication notification system, Nixle. Nixle is a web-based platform that provides registrants with location-specific public safety information via text message, mobile application, email alerts and/or web posts. It’s a free service to the village and its residents. Police Chief Aaron Klima said Nixle allows police to connect with residents and provide them with relevant alerts via the modes of communication they regularly use. “This is the easiest and best thing that I’ve seen, and it doesn’t cost the village or the residents a penny to use this,” he said.“It’s a service that’s evolved over time. Now, we’re just really trying to increase the number of participants in the program.” The police department uses the system for weather advisories, public safety alerts and other pressing public information needs. Registrants will not be advertised to, and their information—name, email, phone number—is not shared, Klima said. Plus, it only takes a couple minutes to set up an account. “Nixle is not a ‘Big Brother’ thing,” he said.“We don’t glean any information from this. It’s simply a tool for you to get information from us.” The village police department currently has about 400 subscribers, but in a town of 16,000, Klima said he wants more to make the system more viable. See STORM, page 23