Reverse 911 making positive impact on Norwood force

NORWOOD, NJ — Technology has revolutionized many aspects of daily life, and innovations in mass notification systems are impacting local police work.

The Norwood Police Department utilizes two technologically advanced systems to communicate in real time with its residents.

Shortly after joining the force in 2005, Police Chief Jeffrey Krapels lobbied for and brought to the Borough a Reverse 911 system to enable the Police Department to swiftly disseminate a recorded message to landlines, notifying residents of emergent situations and other safety-related, time-sensitive matters.

Although the Reverse 911 system is updated every six months to reflect current publicly listed landlines, it does not account for mobile telephone accounts. Krapels said many residents no longer maintain home telephone service and rely on their mobile devices for all telephonic and other communication, so the Reverse 911 system fails to capture the attention of a great number of residents.

To address this issue, Krapel has created a new portal on the Norwood Borough website, www.norwoodboro.org, to allow residents to register their cell phones for the Reverse 911 system.

Additionally, the Borough has recently begun utilizing the NIXLE Notification system. NIXLE is a text and email-based notification system which permits law enforcement to reach residents and interested non-residents’ mobile devices, smart phones, tablets and computers in real time with emergency and community-minded messages.

Krapels refers to NIXLE as a “great tool” which makes police work somewhat easier.

He referred to a recent incident wherein a young girl was bitten by a dog while playing in the park. The owner of the dog had fled the scene, and immediately after a NIXLE notification was disseminated, the owner of the dog was identified by a witness and apprehended. While responding to a recent push-in home invasion, he was able to send out a NIXLE alert to borough residents from the scene, using a Blackberry mobile device and laptop he keeps with him.

“NIXLE has been invaluable in assisting us with leads and clues,” he said, “The system has helped us recover an elderly Alzheimer’s patient who had wandered off as well as a minor who ran away from home and was spotted at a fast food restaurant by a resident who had received the NIXLE alert.”

Norwood Detective Chris Fedderici recalled an incident earlier this month which was initially reported as a possible abduction. A NIXLE alert after a resident had witnessed a man forcing a woman into a car led to seven phone calls, one of which provided the vehicle’s license plate number.

Police were able to quickly locate the owner of the vehicle, and determined it was a domestic dispute rather than an obduction.

“The use of the NIXLE system saved us many man hours which otherwise would have been needed to investigate the matter,” Fedderici said, “The alert also enabled us to inform the State Police and Prosecutor’s office, all of whom offered help while we thought we were dealing with an abduction.”

The NIXLE service is free to the Borough of Norwood and the residents’ information remains private.

So long as they have access to texts or email, residents can keep apprised of matters concerning Norwood even when they are out of the area.

Read the story here.

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