NIXLE

October 16, 2009

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department, in its continuous endeavor to keep our community connected and protected, would like to announce its new alert messaging service, NIXLE.

Nixle is a free, simple, and trusted messaging service that allows the Pima County Sheriff’s Department to send real-time public safety threats, alerts and community events to the public via the web, email and/or cell phone.  Individual users get to choose what types of messages they want to receive and how they would like to receive them.

Nixle, LLC developed this secure messaging technology to open trustworthy, reliable communications between governmental agencies and the communities they serve.  Only authenticated agencies and organizations are permitted to use Nixle, which prevents false messages and impersonations.  Pima County Sheriff’s Department messages sent through Nixle will also be published to the Department’s Twitter account.  More importantly, Pima County residents will now be alerted to timely events such as road closures, Amber Alerts, missing children and vulnerable adults and other critical incidents where informing the public is critical. 

Every citizen is encouraged to sign up to receive these messages and begin connecting with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, especially those people who live, work and frequent the areas of Mount Lemmon and Arivaca, Arizona.  Also, businesses that employ drivers or citizens who commute frequently are encouraged to sign up, so when a person is reported missing, additional eyes are assisting law enforcement in making a quick and safe recovery.  Also, road closures will be published in timely fashion so fast changing weather and law enforcement related road closures won’t catch drivers off guard.