Costa Mesa Emergency Notification Systems

TWO NEW GREAT TOOLS
In a press release today Costa Mesa Police Department Public Information Officer, Lieutenant Greg Scott, announced the availability of two new information resources for the public.  The following is the text of Scott's message:

"The City of Costa Mesa is proud to partner with AlertOC and Nixle. Both of these programs are mass notification systems meant to inform the public of emergency or noteworthy information.

AlertOC is designed to keep Orange County residents and businesses informed of emergencies and certain community events.  By registering with AlertOC, time-sensitve voice messages from the County or City in which you live or work may be sent to your home, cell or business phone.  Text messages may also be sent to cell phones, e-mail accounts and hearing impaired receiving devices.  It is also commonly called "Reverse 9-1-1," but this is a registered trademark.

Nixle is also up and running in Costa Mesa!  Nixle is currently being used by over 5,000 public agencies.  Nixle will allow the Costa Mesa Police Department to communicate with residents, via text and email messages, at no cost to the populace, through Nixle's high performance messaging network.  In addition to City-wide messaging, Nixle will also allow the Police department to contact residents within specific geographical areas.

Notifications can be made to residents about a variety of things, including emergency preparation, traffic management, event management, community outreach, hazardous situations, press releases, and missing and wanted individuals.

Communication with the public is critical to effective emergency responses.  Over 85% of civilians can be instantly reached on their mobile phone by text messaging.  In crisis situations, timely information saves lives, and there is no more effective means to quickly reach large populations than mobile text messaging.

You can register now, via a link located on the Police Department's website at www.costamesapd.org.  Nixle is one more tool that will enable the Department to keep it's residents informed about important safety issues in the Costa Mesa community!

The City encourages all of our residents to register for both of these great programs!"

MORE INFORMATION AND SIGN-UP
You can find information on AlertOC HERE and Nixle HERE.  I participate in both these excellent programs and find them very useful.  I encourage you all to investigate them and sign up now.