By Courtney Flynn, The Chicago Tribune
With five children in local schools and his own business to run, Highland Park resident Richard Small jumped at the chance to receive e-mails from police warning him about potential emergencies.
Thanks to the new system, police can send e-mails to hundreds of people on their personal computers, cell phones or electronic organizers, alerting them to everything from road closures to terror alerts.
“Obviously, if there’s something going on, it’s nice to know about it,” said Small, 52. “It’s a way of being aware of what’s going on in the area should there be some type of emergency.”
More than 660 people, including about 80 police employees, have registered to receive the free e-mail alerts since the system started in mid-December, said Highland Park Police Sgt. George Pfutzenreuter. He said his goal is to sign up 1,000 people in the town of 31,000.
Offering such e-mail notification systems is an emerging trend in law enforcement, experts say.
Departments like the systems, said Laimutis Nargelenas, manager of government relations and training for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, because they “give you another way to get the information back out to people.”
Although no one knows how many Illinois towns have signed up for such services, a St. Paul-based company endorsed by the police chiefs association is working with 18 Illinois communities, including Carpentersville, Glenwood, South Holland and Gurnee.
The firm, Citizen Observer, solicits donations from businesses to pay for the system.
In Gurnee, the firm has raised $3,000 to pay for the setup, Police Cmdr. Jay Patrick said.
The first few crime alerts, such as warnings about purse snatchers in local stores, generated just one call--from a police department in Wisconsin that saw the notice.
“We are starting to utilize it more, but we’re in our infancy,” Patrick said. “The more [people] we get in the network, the more effective we’ll be.”
In Highland Park, the city spends about $400 a year to use the Silent Partner Alert system managed by Chuck Manning, a former police officer and president of Manning Systems Engineering in Gainesville, Va.
Manning’s system allows police to send out alerts without having to develop their own software, pay computer programmers or maintain data, Pfutzenreuter said.
Police simply log on to a Web site, type in a password and send out e-mails to anyone registered for the service.
Depending on the nature of the emergency, police can send the e-mails throughout the city or to those in a particular area. Residents also can request information by topic, such as traffic accidents or school closings.
The e-mails, which could include photos, sketches or text, typically include a telephone number or hot line for calling police, Pfutzenreuter said.
In Highland Park, residents sign up for the e-mail alerts at www.silentpartneralert.com or through the city’s Web site at www.cityhpil.com/govern/dept/police/PENS.html.
Highland Park Police Cmdr. Mike Olshefske said that in the first three months, the city used the system a half-dozen times. An initial alert was about cold weather in January. A more recent alert asked residents to be on the lookout for a man from Racine who was believed to have abducted his wife.
“It’s been a great system, a great tool,” Olshefske said. “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback.”
Highland Park authorities hope the new system will not only get out the word about emergencies but also help them solve crimes.
“We have so many police out there and we can’t see everything,” Pfutzenreuter said. “The more people that we can transfer information to who can help us look for things when we need to, the better.”
In addition to the e-mails, the city has a reverse-911 system, which calls residents and businesses with a recorded message of some problem or warning.
“But sometimes people aren’t home or don’t answer their phones, but they might be checking their e-mail,” said Councilman Jim Kirsch.
Together the two systems should give the city better coverage, Kirsch said, and “instead of having a police force of dozens, we have a police force of 30,000, potentially.”
Freelance reporter Sean D. Hamill contributed to this report