Cambridge Debuts Safety Programs

Seven months after Harvard launched a campus-wide text message alert system, the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) yesterday started two new safety alert programs of its own: The Cambridge Alert Network and Text-a-Tip.

The Cambridge Alert Network will send text messages or e-mails with community safety alert to participants. Text-a-Tip works the other way around, enabling community members to send safety alerts to the CPD so that the police can warn other people through the Cambridge Alert Network.

These services are both provided through Citizen Observer, an Internet company that the Boston Police Department has been using since 2006.

CPD spokeswoman Ashland Ruggiero said that Boston’s success with the programs sparked interest in starting a similar initiative in Cambridge and surrounding cities.

Earlier this year, Harvard launched a program similar to the Cambridge Alert Network called Message Me through Omnilert, a company that provides the same services as Citizen Observer.

Although Message Me has seen a 60 percent involvement rate in the Harvard community, college officials have not made sign-up mandatory.

Likewise, despite the good response from the Boston population, the city did not make participation in their own safety programs mandatory.

On the other hand, Boston University (BU) first started its alert program, also through Omnilert, as a requirement before registration in the fall of 2007.

“We felt that was the most important thing—to be sure that we had people as part of the system,” Peter Fiedler, vice president for administrative services at BU, said in support of full-student participation. “If you can’t be assured that you’re reaching everyone, then what’s the point?”

Bryan J. Crum, spokesman for Omnilert, said it can be tough to make safety alert programs mandatory. “There’s no law that says you can require somebody to put their information in the system,” he said. “Your cell phone number and e-mail address are your personal property.”

But Crum said that communities, schools, businesses, and especially police departments are nevertheless starting to recognize the importance of alert programs.

“With just a few clicks, one person can alert everyone in the way they want to receive the message,” he said.

As the Cambridge, Boston, and other surrounding police departments implement these programs, Harvard is also attempting to increase student participation in its own alert program.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesman Robert P. Mitchell said the College is currently in transition, trying to figure out how to stress the importance of community alerts to students, faculty, and staff.

“We are continuing to do outreach efforts each term and even more frequently,” he said.