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"The real crux is to use today's technology to share information with the public about everything from street closures for a festival to abducted children in the area," said Officer Michael Bonse, who also played a prominent role in helping his department switch to paperless tickets and accident reports, implement computerized criminal histories and add computers to police cars.
Bonse said the Citizen Observer alerts, which people can receive by signing up at www.citizenobserver.com, can help police find criminal suspects and missing persons by conveying their descriptions to the community quickly and pervasively.
The Kingston police currently distribute fliers and accept phone tips, said Lt. Egidio Tinti, but the Citizen Observer program gives people another medium with which to interact with the police department. Tinti said the program has "a lot of potential because so many people have Internet connections and cellular phones."
The only other police department in the state currently using the Citizen Observer is Poughkeepsie's, and the chief there, Ronald J. Knapp, said he is "very pleased with the outreach achieved" by the system.
Knapp said his department has been using Citizen Observer daily since initiating the service in November.
"It is a lot easier for us to get our message out," Knapp said. "We don't have to wait for the media ... if there is a complaint about vehicle break-ins. Sometimes the story might be delayed because of space or whatever reason."
Knapp said he saw quite a bit of enthusiasm about Citizen Observer from other agencies at a recent meeting of police department officials and would not be surprised to see it spread and even receive state funding.
The alerts can be broadcast and searched based on radius, according to Bonse, so more agencies using the program would mean more information going to more citizens.
He also said members of the public can sign up to receive alerts as a citizen, a business or a neighborhood watch group, depending on what information they want.
Bonse cited a rash of counterfeit $50 bills being spent at local stores as a hypothetical example of how the alerts could be particularly useful to businesses.
Sgt. Thierry Croizer assured potential users of the new system that the alerts "won't be making your phone ring at 2 a.m."
"The alerts will be sent during typical waking hours, unless it's something time pressing that can't wait," Croizer said.
Emergencies that might prompt late-night alerts include a natural disaster or a child abduction, he said.
"Of course, in the case of an emergency, people should call 911 rather than submit tips, because it isn't failsafe," Tinti said of the new system.
The Kingston Police Department was able to launch Citizen Observer because of a grant from the Alcoa Foundation.
Alcoa's local human resources representative, Marcia Kemp, believes the Web-based program, which was funded under the foundation's "safe and healthy families" criteria, can help to protect children at risk.
"It can help educate parents, and the children can see easily what's going on in the community around them," Kemp said. "It really brings business, residents and police together to raise awareness and reduce crimes."
Bonse said people who wish to use the online system should go the Web site, select the "communities" tab, then the "groups" tabs and then search by state or ZIP code.
