Tyrone Police Department has unveiled a new electronic community alert system, the Town Crier. Chief Brandon Perkins said the alert system is in an effort to provide timely information to its citizens. A recent announcement of the system has already resulted in 41 people signing up for the service.

The Town Crier is an email list system that allows the police department to send bulk messages providing public safety and other relevant information relating to the town. Some of the information that will be provided includes: crime prevention tips, lookouts, severe weather alerts, information on road closings, neighborhood watch information and crime statistics.

Tyrone had a similar email system several years ago, also called the Town Crier, but discontinued the program. Perkins said since that time numerous citizens have requested that the program be reinstated.

“The new system is so easy to use that we were able to include the Town Crier into our alert system,” Perkins said. “The program was initially called TECH (Tyrone Email Communication Hub) but that name was dropped when the Town Crier was brought back.”

The Town Crier consists of four mailing lists: the Town Crier, Citizen Alerts, Business Alerts and Senior Alerts, said Perkins. The Town Crier provides general information about what is going on in the Town of Tyrone including news, council agendas and minutes, road closings, and weather alerts. The Citizen Alerts feature provides public safety information including crime reports, crime prevention tips and lookouts. Business Alerts provides the same information but includes additional information targeted at protecting businesses. Senior Alerts provides all of the information included in citizen alerts plus information targeted at helping our senior population remain safe.

Perkins said the police department obtained the software required to operate this system at no charge through an open license agreement and then developed the system for its specific uses.

“The recent storms provided a great opportunity to test the system and we were able to send out a weather alert from the National Weather Service,” said Perkins. “We have receive a lot of positive feedback about the system since that time.”

Perkins said the police department plans on adding a bulk text message system to the program in the future, which would provide an even better means of getting information out quickly with the abundance of cellular phone users out there. That system would be used only in an emergency situation to help cut down on citizens incurring fees associated with incoming text messages.

Anyone interested in receiving ongoing information should visit wwwtyrone.org to sign up for the Town Crier.

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