Valparaiso police department now accepting “tips” via text messaging
Posted by AWB in Current AffairsInteresting concept. See a drug deal going down in your neighborhood? Text the police department, and it’s visible via a web site that street patrol officers can see in their cars. They claim they don’t know where the text originates but given the way texting technology works, it makes you wonder.
Via NWI.com
The department kicked off its tip411 program Tuesday. People can now send text messages to 847411 (tip411). People just need to make sure the first word of the text message is Valpo — so the message gets directed to Valparaiso police — followed by the message itself.
Police will be notified a text message has been sent to them, and they can view it on a website using their in-car computers or hand-held devices. Police do not know from which phone number the message came from, but they can reply via the website if they need to ask a question to the sender.
Maybe this is something the FWPD should be taking a look at.
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Thanks for promoting Dan, we are working on one of our early campaign themes – community based policing. Involving the community to create an informed and safer set of neighborhoods.
Mayor Costas
Mayor Costas,
You are on it! Did not know you read the blog. We could use a mayor like you over here.
Kudos to the Mayor (Costas). My only advise is to carefully scrutinize the safety aspects of this and make sure there is no way to discover the identities of people who wish to remain anonymous.
Regarding Fort Wayne, the patrol officers would probaby like this but I doubt if the administration would. FWPD is a top-down organization and allowing this type of citizen involvement is the antithesis of that.
Dan, I'm getting a crash course from your pal Dalton on engaging and keeping my eyes open for places that Valpo is being derided or congratulated. Actually this afternoon we tour the Porter County fairgrounds with former Senator Dan Coats and I'm shooting HD video that I hope will be good enough to post on a couple sites.
Phil, interesting that you say that about Fort Wayne, back in 2003 many of the ideas of community based neighborhoods and policing we embraced came from your City. I hope they can be reinserted into your community culture soon.
That assumes they will respond in time. I have called the dispatcher and by the time she completed confirmation of who I was, my address, telephone number and whether I would like to be seen the perps had moved on. Police in Fort Wayne go from one assignment to another with little if any down time during a shift, and there are precious few of them on the street at any given time, so add few-and-far-between to the problem. As for community based policing, I am a neighborhood president and I have the name and email address of my liaison officer who patrols overnight. To have his text might be helpful, but they really are very, very busy and, short of a hold up in progress, would not likely respond…at least quickly.
Mayor Costas,
My experience is unique. For nearly fifteen years I have lived in an area of Fort Wayne which until the past two years could only be described as an open-air drug market. A few years ago, the drug dealers threw molotov cocktails at my house because I was chasing them out of my yard and calling the police. I can not speak authoritatively about FWPD’s theoretical methods or how well they hold up in other areas of the city. All I can say for certain is that in neighborhoods such as mine, the police are so stressed out that their theories break down almost entirely as they succumb to the chaos.
That being said, I have always tried to make it clear that I believe there are a lot of good elements within the department. I just think that in neighborhoods like mine they are so overwhelmed that they can’t possibly do all they are charged with doing. The point that I hope to impress upon you, however, has little to do with the police in either of our cities.
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What I want you to know is that the people who make their money from selling drugs are often ruthless. They don’t usually harass the people just walking down the sidewalk and minding their own business. But if someone gets in their way, they will often react violently. I know of at least three guys from this neighborhood who are among Fort Wane’s numerous unsolved homicides. And one of my neighbors once had gasoline thrown on him, was lit on fire, then had a screwdriver plunged into his head. All of this violence stems from the drug trafficking here.
I have listened to these guys standing beside my house as they discussed ways of trying to figure out which residents in my neighborhood were calling the police to report their activities. I know that the police try to be careful, but these guys are crafty in the ways they are able to find information. If your system leaves any doubt among the intended users as to whether their identity is protected, then they will not use it. If they think it is secure, but it turns out not to be, then an innocent person may suffer for that.
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So, what happens if a tipster accidentally misspells the “Valpo” prefix? Where will their message actually be sent, and will that recipient be able to know where the message originated from? I am simply trying to stress the point that if you advertise that the user’s identity is protected, then you have an obligation to make sure it is ABSOLUTELY protected.
Which FW neighborhood?
They have not left, at least in my experience.
Jim,
It is the LaRez neighborhood, in the Hanna-Creighton area.
Pat Turner is my NA President.