NIXLE is a communication service that allows local, county and state law enforcement and government agencies to connect with local residents over cell phone, email and web with information delivered in real time to a geographically targeted audience. The information is to alert the public about things of an urgent nature such as traffic disrupting auto accidents, missing persons, crime developments and other important time sensitive public safety announcements.
The great part about this service is that it was available at no cost to the governmental agency or the subscriber.
It appears the no cost part has come to an end.
Without previous notice, the service sent the Fort Thomas Police department an invoice for $3,000.
According to the blog Fort Thomas Matters a message from Lt. Ken Fetcher of the Fort Thomas Police department states:
“The Fort Thomas Police Department regrets to advise that Nixle is not going to be a viable avenue of communication. This change took place April 26th. Nixle has announced that Departments using Nixle will be charged $3000.00 per year for their service. They will allow us to continue free, but we would ONLY be able to use it for emergency crisis situations. Fort Thomas Police Department is not immune to the current economic difficulties, and our agency is unable to budget for this service.”
Fort Thomas, a much larger city than Alexandria has decided that they will no longer participate in the service due to cost.
Let’s see what Alexandria with a much smaller budget than Fort Thomas decides to do.
