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to Farms residents immediately

Urgent and other info now sent
to Farms residents immediately

Grosse Pointe Farms has a new way to keep residents up to date on city events, information and emergencies.

The Farms’ police department adopted the Nixle Community Information Service about two weeks ago. It's an automated system that sends registered users e-mails or text messages about items of urgent interest.

Residents who sign up for the service can determine what kinds of messages they receive and how they receive them.

“There’s the alerts, advisories, traffic and community information, but the resident can mold it to the info they’d want to receive,” said Lt. Andrew Rogers. “I’m blown away by it.”

Rogers implemented the service after pitching the idea to his chief; the service was approved and almost immediately put in place. He learned about the service through a Detroit News article about other suburbs using Nixle.

“I live in the Farms myself so I want to get this just as much as the next person,” Rogers said.

“I hope everyone goes on the site and sees how easy it is,” Rogers said. “It’s free for the residents. The only charge is if you have a text messaging plan that makes you pay per text, but you can opt out of the text messaging.”

Lt. Rich Risotti is also an administrator for the Farms’ Nixle service. “I’m still learning about it,” Risotti said. “But it’s simple and it’s a good way to get the information out to the residents.”

Rogers looks forward to using the Nixle service as an aid as well as to disperse information. A typical alert last week was about a suspicious person attempting an ATM scam on the Hill.

“It won’t just be all bad news, it’s not out to scare someone and there’s no spam and no advertising,” he said.

Residents can sign up for Nixle by visiting the website.

A resident must enter her or his address or closest cross-street in order to receive specific information about the Farms’ community. Multiple locations can be added at no additional cost. 

Alert messages will come only from the Farms’ police department. If residents have questions or tips based on the information received from Nixle, they should contact the police department, Rogers said. 

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