Coming soon to a substation near you: a magnet for your fridge with quick information about how to reach the cops.
The magnets are smaller — but contain lots more direct information — than the last ones the police department handed out to citizens, in 1991, which had just two main telephone numbers and a pocket in which officers could slip a business card.
The department will begin distributing the new magnets this week at neighborhood substations, City Hall, and the 1 Union Ave. central police headquarters. The magnets list main phone numbers of top cops, of divisions within the department, and of neighborhood substations. It has email addresses for the chief and assistant chiefs.
Meanwhile, the department has now equipped all cops with email and voicemail so citizens can reach them directly. Their email addresses follow a [email protected] format. All officers with ranks of sergeant or above have recently received Blackberrys as well, enabling people to reach them via text messages.
Chief Dean Esserman said the moves reflect a continuing effort to connect cops with civilians.
“This is a police department where the work is not done in headquarters,” he said. “It’s done in the neighborhoods. It’s our job to reach out to the community to make it easy to reach us.”
Miss read that though it meant that community that did not have substation were getting one. Oh well.
but I do like the direct contact. Because alot of times I think the info we call the dispatch with and or non emergency are not making it to the right people. And I think every call even if a report is not done should be on record or at the least be noted so that the true crime in an area can be judged and handled. This is a good thing.