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Mark it on the blackboard: City looks to connect with residents
By Kenny Green, kgreen@starlocalnews.com
The city of Rowlett is determined to keep its residents as up to date on issues affecting its residents as it can. The city recently introduced a new notification system known as Blackboard Connect. Blackboard Connect is a replacement Code Red as the city's citizen notification service.
"Code Red was a much more difficult system to utilize, said William M. Brodnax, Rowlett police chief. "Blackboard Connect is much easier to use and also provides us with an internal management system."
The notification system informs the resident of issues that affect their neighborhood and the streets they travel daily.
The major benefit of the service is it's personalized for each individual and designed to provide personalized, targeted information that can be communicated by phone, text message or email to residents and businesses within minutes. Blackboard Connect has the ability to communicate with the entire city all at once or target specific areas of the city that would benefit from the information being communicated.
"We can communicate with residents if there is a missing child or elderly person within minutes of us being notified by a citizen," Brodnax said.
Some of the information might include time-sensitive or common-interest issues including water main breaks or street closures, crimes trending in certain areas of Rowlett or special events and local community matters.
"We can blast information when crimes happen. It gives the police easy, immediate access to the residents," Brodnax said.
So far the service has been successful in facilitating some good leads on the recent 20 inch wheel thefts in several neighborhoods from citizens calling in after receiving the messages.
"We recently used it for the door burglars that were happening and have used it in the past to target the 20 inch wheel thefts that are still happening," Broadax said.
The service will be used to enhance the city's current communication efforts and to assist public safety and first responder services in the event of an incident.
"We don't want to overuse it," Brodnax said.
To use the service you can register your contact information and select how you prefer to receive information by calling the city's citizen action center at 972-463-2489 or by signing up online at www.rowlett.com.
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