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• <br />POLICY ITEM: G3 <br />3/26/03 <br />ITEM: Consideration of participation in the CitizenObserver Program <br />SUBMITTED BY: Susan Gehrz, Mayor <br />EXPLANATION: <br />Summary: For many years our Neighborhood Block Captains, individual residents, and city <br />council and staff have wanted to use a-mail as a rapid and cost-effective tool for crime alerts <br />and/or notification of upcoming city events. CitizenObserver.com, Inc. is a St Paul company that <br />can enable us to provide that new service to our residents. <br />I have heard Terry Halsch, President, make 3 presentations about this resource and would like to <br />pursue this opportunity using some of the $9,807 grant from the Department of Emergency <br />Management to do so. Mr. Halsch presented information to the Neighborhood Commission at <br />the March 19 meeting and the Commission suggested that we continue researching the details of <br />how we could use this. <br />• CitizenObserver has secure servers in San Antonio, Texas. Their initial work was in using <br />Internet, fax, and cell phone notifications to alert businesses to crimes. Businesses funded most <br />of the cost. They later expanded to other alerts and to providing the web site presence for police <br />departments. They currently have over 1000 Neighborhood Watch Programs enrolled through <br />115 participating agencies in 8 states. The next phase is to expand this resource for use by <br />Citizen Corps Councils. <br />They currently offer automated registration, secure sites so no one can create an unauthorized <br />message, the ability to target alerts to specific neighborhoods, and the ability to create both <br />public and private pages. We do not have the in-house resources to do this ourselves. <br />Please take a couple minutes to look at this resource at www.CitizenObserver.com. Surf around <br />the site and check out the "Neighborhood Watch Groups." You can also see which cities in <br />Minnesota and other states are already using this service. <br />I am currently gathering cost and other details which I will have for you at the meeting. Please <br />bring your questions for our discussion. <br />ACTION REQUESTED: <br />• Discussion <br />• Consideration of participation in the CitizenObserver Program <br />I.J <br />