Lynchburg police disappointed over Silent Partner Alert system response

By Carrie J. Sidener

Published: April 11, 2008

Information about the robbery that happened down the street, the car crash on a major thoroughfare, or the Alzheimer’s patient who wondered away from home can be sent directly to the e-mail accounts and cell phones of residents throughout Lynchburg.

The problem is few people have signed up for the service.

The Lynchburg Police Department launched its Silent Partner Alert system two years ago, expecting thousands of residents to sign up, said Capt. Wayne Duff. Instead, only about 500 people are participating.

That is disappointing since the information “could lead to us solving a crime,” Duff said.

The alert system gives police a way to get a message to people about wanted criminal suspects, missing children, road hazards, wrecks, crime trends and other problems.

Subscribers can receive the alerts on their computers, cell phones, pagers, personal digital assistants, Blackberries and Palm Pilots.

“Anybody in the world can go to the Web site and sign up for certain information,” Duff said. “We can send the messages out automatically and it goes to any person who has signed up. We can send photographs of subjects.”

Getting that information in the hands of residents immediately gives police more opportunities to catch criminals, Duff said. Residents become partners with police to keep their neighborhoods safe.
Say there was a robbery and the suspect fled in a pickup truck.

“We can say be on the look out for a blue pickup truck missing a tailgate that was involved in a robbery,” Duff said. “They may be behind that vehicle and they call 911 and we’ve solved a crime.”

Cindy Kozerow, crime prevention specialist, said the program has been used in helping find missing persons, including a girl whose parents had reported her missing after she didn’t come home from school.

Duff said the reason more have not subscribed is twofold — the police department hasn’t marketed it enough and residents haven’t stepped up to the plate.

“Maybe people think there is some kind of catch,” she said. “We don’t even know who has signed up for it. The company we’re paying handles all the administration of it. All we handle is the alerts.”

Signing up for the service requires providing an e-mail address and a first name. Subscribers can specify which of the city’s three geographic divisions they are interested in and can chose to receive alerts on more than a dozen topics.

The Silent Partner Web site collects no personal information and the police department knows nothing about its subscribers.

The alert system is free for subscribers. Businesses sponsor the service, which would otherwise cost the taxpayers $1,500.

The alerts contain advertisements from the sponsor businesses — by Campbell Insurance, Justice Convenience Stores, Neighbors Place, Quik-E Food Store, RR Donnelly, Sonny-Merryman, Target, Virginia Centennial Cameras and Alarms, Witten Funeral Service and WSET.

Lynchburg was the second organization in Virginia to sign up for the program. Only seven law enforcement agencies use the system: Lynchburg, Liberty University, South Boston, Herndon, Purcellville, Leesburg, and Haymarket police departments.

“It’s a pretty simple straight forward way to get information and solve a crime in the process,” Kozerow said.

for your info

To sign up, visit http://www.silentpartneralert.com and click the link to register for free alerts. The site then asks for a username, e-mail and phone number. Users can choose which police department and what type of alerts they want.