Nixle provides quick emergency information

For those caught in a major traffic jam wishing there had been a way to know about it beforehand, or those beginning a trip or concerned about emergency situations they might not be aware of, the city of Maricopa has a new tool that may provide the answer – Nixle.

Nixle is a free service offered by the fire department, police and the city itself that sends emergency notification directly to cell phones or emails with real-time information.

People can set up an account at www.nixle.com and choose the agencies they would like to have information about.

Along with the city agencies, alerts are available from the Gila River Indian Police, Pinal County Office of Emergency Management and the sheriff’s office and even statewide agencies such as ADOT and the Division of Emergency Management.

“We were looking for a product that would give us the ability to do a mass system alert notification,” said Brad Pitassi, the fire department’s public information officer.

“I witnessed it being used at the ‘Wallow’ fire when I was a public information officer up there. They were evacuating some towns through that system. I thought it was a great tool because it sent messages directly to residents’ cell phones.”

The system is fairly new to the city, having been implemented in September. About 300 residents have signed up for the fire department alerts so far, and the goal is 20,000, Pitassi said.

“If people want information specifically for the fire department, such as major medical incidents, structure fires and hazardous materials incidents they would be able to sign up for our account,” Pitassi said.

The police account covers such areas as Amber and Silver alerts, sexual predator notifications, school lockdowns and traffic, among others. The city can send out such information as road closure notifications.

Nixle was started in January 2007 when it was realized the social media was beginning to play a role in providing emergency information from law enforcement agencies.

“None of those social media were actually built for law enforcement,” said Nixle’s Vice President for Agency Relations Travis Scott.

“We first decided to partner with an agency called NLETS, the International Justice and Public Safety Network, which houses our servers in its secure facility in Phoenix,” Scott said, adding that security is tight with information coming from agencies, as well as subscribers’ personal data, which is shared only with the agencies involved.

***ADVERTISEMENT***The company currently works with more than 4,600 agencies covering all 50 states and has a goal of reaching 18,000.

“We’ve been getting a tremendous response,” Pitassi said of the system that costs Maricopa $4,500 a year.

Among the first uses for the system from the fire department was an alert about the major tanker fire on I-10 a few months ago.

“That was a situation that, even though it was outside of our jurisdiction, we know that it affects residents that were commuting to Phoenix, so we sent the message out giving a heads-up. I got a great response from people thanking us for putting that out so they didn’t have to sit in traffic.”

Pitassi said user feedback is helping the department tailor the information it releases.

“I had one resident tell me that he really liked getting the information as it occurs, but wants to also find out when situations end. Through that feedback we have started giving timelines and estimates, especially when it involves traffic.

“We want to get as many people involved as possible. To have the ability to have all this information going directly to people’s cell phones, or email accounts, is just a great tool,” he said.