| | Published February 1st, 2012
| Moraga Police Choose Nixle for Emergency Messaging
| | By Sophie Braccini |  | | courtesy of www.nixle.com/
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The Moraga Town Council recently approved the usage of Nixle by its Police Department for emergency messaging to residents. The decision followed a recent road closure on Moraga Way that created considerable inconvenience for Lamorinda residents and served as a reminder that, according to the Police Department, the community should be doing a better job of preparing for minor emergencies, as well as for major emergencies. Nixle, a communication system used by some 5,000 public agencies, will disseminate important information to as many stakeholders as possible, as quickly as possible, either to their phones or via email.
In order for the system to be effective, residents have to register their information, email and/or mobile phone. Moraga Police Chief Bob Priebe encourages all residents to sign up for Nixle. "With no cost to the Department, taxpayers, or residents, the Nixle Connect is a cost-effective solution," said the Chief.
Following the meeting, the Police Department set up an account to communicate with the public via text/SMS, e-mail, and/or Internet posts depending on what residents choose for themselves. "The messages we will send will address issues such as a road closure, a law enforcement activity, a fire response," said Priebe, adding, "Nixle will also be part of the Town's Emergency Response Plan for communicating with residents."
You can register to receive messages from Moraga Police by sending a text message with your zip code to 888777, and online registration is also available at www.nixle.com. Subscribing to Nixle is easy and free. Enter your name, address and telephone number. Adding the phone number is optional, but if you just enter your email you will not receive text messages. The system sends you alerts from official agencies located in your area that have signed onto Nixle. You will be automatically signed up to receive messages from the Moraga Police Department; other towns or agencies of interest can be added to and removed from your alarm system.
"We met today with Chief Priebe and our Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Dennis Rein," said Moraga Orinda Fire Department Chief Randy Bradley,
"We'll be working also with the cities of Lafayette and Orinda. This is an area where regionalization makes sense and will improve efficiency. We will identify ways for the Fire Department to use it through the Police Department and we are very supportive of it."
"We are excited to have the Moraga Police Department join over 4,600 agencies across the nation that use Nixle for their means of real-time communication," said Eric Liu, Nixle CEO. "With Nixle Connect, public notification is made easy. It assures that the Moraga community will quickly receive the information they need the most, such as traffic reports, crime alerts, and emergency notifications." Currently, Walnut Creek uses Nixle extensively and Lafayette recently joined. Nixle indicates that more than 700,000 citizens nationwide have signed up to take advantage of their service.
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About Nixle
Founded in 2007, Nixle is a privately held company based in San Francisco. Nixle is a Community Information Service dedicated to helping people get access to the information they need, depending on their physical location. Only authenticated agencies and community organizations can securely publish information. There are four types of messages; Alerts (many would refer to this as an emergency type alert), Advisories (less urgent need-to-know information), Community Information (day-to-day neighborhood to community-level information), Traffic (very localized traffic information). Nixle is the only messaging service certified by the International Justice and Safety Networks (Nlets), which is owned by the 50 states, links together and supports every federal, state and local law enforcement, justice and public safety agency for the purpose of sharing and exchanging critical information. "Our goal will be to get every local, state and federal agency to link into the Nixle network and provide the public with every type of information, from emergency notification to day-to-day information on traffic, missing persons and local events. The more agencies and citizens you sign up, the better it will be for public safety," said CEO Eric Liu in an interview with Government Security News. In order to be able to continue to provide this free service, Nixle is now rolling out additional paid plans that incorporate added functionality plus upcoming new releases.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA