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Florissant Outlines New Cell Service to Keep Citizens Updated
By Carol Arnett
Florissant Police Officer Andy Haarmann spoke to the Florissant City Council at their recent meeting about a new service the police department is using to keep residents informed.
The Nixle Community Information Service allows residents to subscribe to receive messages from the police department instantly via cell phone text message and/or email. Notifications can also be accessed online at Nixle’s web site at www.nixle.com.
Nixle is a free service. It has been in effect since 2007 and approximately 5700 agencies are using it, Haarmann said. The Florissant Police Department began using it on March 4.
To sign up, residents should go to Nixle.com. Residents can also get notifications from other agencies that service the area, such as the Florissant Valley Fire Protection District and the highway patrol. 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.
“The police department will use this for road closures, missing person alerts, natural disasters, and wanted alerts,” Haarmann said. “Residents will know they are getting reliable information from a trusted source.”
Haarmann noted that the service would not replace any other communications, but will supplement them.
“The department wants to use this sparingly,” Haarmann said, “only for emergencies.”
Councilman Joe Eagan asked if the city could assure residents that their email address and phone numbers will remain private. Haarmann assured him that the service was secure.
Councilman Tim Lee said he used the service already. He said he appreciated notices of road closures.
In other matters, the council passed a bill appropriating funds for new software for the police department and other police department expenditures. Mayor Tom Schneider said the old software system vendor would not be supporting the old system, so they needed to purchase new. “This went into effect in December. We are satisfied with it, so this will pay it off,” Schneider said.
The council also passed a bill that would delete the position of “Assistant Parks Director,” and replace it with a new position, “Recreation Superintendent.” Lee explained that this would save the city money.
