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So, you too are obsessed with social media. You love the concept of interacting and connecting with other like-minded folks the world over. On top of that, you’re a cop and can see the benefits social media can provide for your jurisdiction in spades. The chief though? Not so much.
Perhaps your chief has seen and heard too many horror stories about public relations nightmares from irresponsible officers all over the country, and it’ll be a cold day in hell before he walks blithely down that road. Not to worry, I’ve got something you can take to him that’ll wet his whistle. Simply ask the chief if he’d like a platform that is secure, will target a specific geographic area/group and is, wait for it, free. The technology exists in Nixle.

Public Safety Specific

Nixle is a mass communication system designed by and built for public safety agencies. Initially, Nixle may seem to be just another Facebook or Twitter knockoff, but Nixle stands strongly on its own two feet. How does it stand apart? I contacted Jim Gatta from Nixle to get the answer directly from the source.

Gatta said, “Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Nixle was created specifically with government agencies in mind. FB and Twitter definitely have their place, but they were built for friends and family, not public safety. This means there are risks involved when attempting to send out important, relevant and timely information to the public.”

A lot of tech companies bandy “security” about like merely uttering the term guarantees the reality. Not so with Nixle. Gatta said, “We’re the only mass notification system that NLETS (National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System) partners with and Nixle’s equipment is hosted at NLETS state-of-the-art facility.” I assume there are cyborg ninjas guarding that joint with their soulless, tin lives.

More Benefits

There are two other important distinctions setting Nixle apart from other, perhaps better-known, social media outlets. First, Nixle Engage (a premium service) allows for enhanced geographic targeting, allowing the sender to filter recipients by zip code, town or city name. This helps to ensure the relevant message is targeted to the people most affected. Second, Nixle allows a message to contain 20,000 characters. To give you an idea, the characters used thus far in this column is less than 2,600. Twitter caps off at 140.

Does this mean you have to choose one social media vehicle over another? Of course not! Some people refuse to sign up for Twitter based solely on the ridiculousness of having to use the word “tweet” in a context having nothing to do with birds. Others swear by Twitter. Some people resist Facebook for its seemingly constant updates about what people had for lunch followed by people commenting about how little they care.

Although these sentiments are both amusing and true, social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are what you make of them. A social strategy that neglects them may be lacking. Nixle makes integration with the “big boys” of social media seamless. Sending a message through Nixle can automatically post to Twitter and/or Facebook with one click. That way, you reach your audience in whatever their chosen and preferred outlet may be.

“FB and Twitter definitely have their place, but they were
built for friends and family, not public safety.”

Positive Feedback

All of this seems well and good, but what is the end-user experience like? I reached out to CSO (Community Service Officer) Shannon Revel-Whitaker of Pleasanton PD in Pleasanton, Calif. via my own social media outlets. I asked Shannon about security, as it’s at the forefront of most administrators’ minds these days. She confirmed Pleasanton PD has had zero issues in the 18 months they’ve used Nixle. Revel-Whitaker said she has been very impressed with Nixle and was particularly impressed with the varying levels of urgency: Community, Advisory and Alert.

Community (green) can be used for agency news (i.e. crime stats, special event notices, neighborhood watch events, etc.).
Advisory (yellow) is used for more serious issues that may not rise to the level of an emergency (i.e. traffic issues, utility outages, weather advisory, etc.) Alert (red) is geared more toward emergency management (i.e. missing child, active shooter, disasters, etc.)

The strategy Pleasanton PD employed was to initially connect with their local school system. At the beginning of the school year, they made sure every parent was aware of PPD’s use of Nixle and explained this was the best vehicle to be kept up to date with timely information regarding issues that may be occurring at the school.

According to Nixle, over 85 percent of civilians can be reached instantly by text message on their mobile phones. Consider this scenario: when a tsunami hit Japan a number of years ago, power was knocked out and conventional means of communication were significantly impacted. Less than an hour after the 2011 earthquake hit, tweets from Tokyo topped 1,200/minute according to Tweet-o-Meter (a website dedicated to calculating how many tweets per minute are in certain areas of the world … yes, there is such a site).

When disaster strikes and the ability to reach your community is compromised, social media will become their lifeline. Don’t pass up the opportunity to build and value that relationship before disaster strikes.

For more info: www.nixle.com; Editor’s Note: There are tiers available that allow for more features that come with a fee.
By Jason Hoschouer

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