LEE COUNTY — On Jan. 26, the Lee County Sheriff’s Department launched an innovative community information service that delivers important and timely information to residents of Lee County utilizing the latest in technology.

The service, created by Nixle, LLC, delivers county-side or neighborhood level public safety and community event notifications by e-mail and cell phone text messaging.

Participating in the program is simple. Lee County residents can register to participate by logging on to the Lee County website at www.countyoflee.org and linking to the sheriff’s department site. Residents can also register by visiting the Nixle website at www.nixle.com. This service is free to all Lee County residents wishing to participate in the program.

Lee County Sheriff John R. Varga sees this service as a huge benefit for the county.

“We will be able to get critical information out quickly to hundreds of Lee County residents in a short period of time. The Nixle information system will be used by all law enforcement agencies in Lee County, including the sheriff’s department, Dixon Police Department, Amboy Police Department, Ashton Police Department and the Franklin Grove Police Department,” said Varga.

“If police receive a report of a missing person or child, we will have the ability to quickly send a message to Nixle subscribers in that specific area and be able to provide information to those citizens about the incident as well as a description of the missing person. The system can also be used to notify residents about certain crimes that have been committed in a given area of the county so that they can be aware of what is happening in their neighborhoods and what to be watching for,” the sheriff added.

The Nixle program was activated on Jan. 26, and the sheriff’s department has begun the process of building the subscriber database.

“Ideally, we would like to see every residents in the county who has the ability to receive the messages sign up for this community information service. The program’s success will obviously rely on citizen participation,” said Varga.

Again, there is no charge for the service but standard text messaging rates do apply. Those participating may choose to receive a text message, an e-mail or both.

For the complete article see the 02-03-2010 issue.

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