Police Department To Expand 9-1-1 Service

The will soon be able to let you know personally if your road is closed, if a parking ban is in effect, or tell you if your neighborhood has been the target of criminal activity … that is, if you’re interested.

Lt. Michael Finkelstein said the department will soon subscribe to a web-based service that will notify residents of non-emergency situations or issues in their area. Residents will have to opt into the service to receive alerts via a home phone, cell phone, text and/or emails.

The police department received approximately $4,900 in the 2011-12 budget to supplement the current 9-1-1 system that is in place, which will only call residents to warn of life-threatening situations.

Town Councilor Linda Davis said Tropical Storm Irene, which hit the area in August 2011 and caused massive power outages that lasted for days, was a big influence in the decision.

“It will be a very good thing and would have certainly been helpful after Irene,” she said of using it to let residents know where FEMA supplies were being handed out, where they could get drinking water and take showers.

Finkelstein said the system would have been helpful after Irene hit because it would have allowed for town-wide communication and neighborhood specific communication “about anything that isn’t deemed as life threatening but would have been nice (to know).”

The system accepts several points of contact and will attempt to contact each one in the order prescribed by the resident until it gets a response, according to Finkelstein.

If no one answers a home phone, the system will call a cell phone. If no one responds, it will send an email, said Finkelstein. He said people living anywhere could opt into the system to receive alerts for Ledyard.

Davis said the system is good because it’s inexpensive and accessible. She said,  “people didn’t have electricity but they did have their mobile phones and they did find a way to charge them” during Irene.

Davis said the IT Committee surveyed several emergency notification software systems before settling on Everbridge’s version.

“The Stonington Police Department were the stars with their system,” she said of the Everbridge system they have in place. “It’ll help communicate with residents beyond a crisis.”

Davis said the system will be in use in the near future, and “certainly by hurricane season.”