The Florida city of Cape Coral (population 160,000 plus) has decided to stop sending out mailed sexual predator notifications. Instead, Cape Coral will be using their automated telephone notification system to notify residents when sexual predators move about in the area.
The City Council unanimously voted to take the step, saying they would save money and be able to get the notices out more quickly as sexual predators move from one place to the other. The News-Press article quoted interim Police Chief Jay Murphy as saying, "Offenders move and law-abiding people move into their former houses. The innocent residents sometimes are mistaken for an offender and may be harassed by their neighbors because of the long delay between mailings."
Cape Coral uses a hosted telephone notification system with large capacity, so shouldn't have problems getting emergency alerts outs when a sexual predator notification is issued. We suppose people could complain about using the emergency alert system for this purpose, but it seems that the more the system is used for important purposes such as this, the better off all will be.
All the best,
Rick
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The City Council unanimously voted to take the step, saying they would save money and be able to get the notices out more quickly as sexual predators move from one place to the other. The News-Press article quoted interim Police Chief Jay Murphy as saying, "Offenders move and law-abiding people move into their former houses. The innocent residents sometimes are mistaken for an offender and may be harassed by their neighbors because of the long delay between mailings."
Cape Coral uses a hosted telephone notification system with large capacity, so shouldn't have problems getting emergency alerts outs when a sexual predator notification is issued. We suppose people could complain about using the emergency alert system for this purpose, but it seems that the more the system is used for important purposes such as this, the better off all will be.
All the best,
Rick
