Launches Smartphone Application for Public Safety

摘要

How do you reach citizens who no longer access information in traditional ways? How do you speak to residents who are not watching the local nightly news, listening to news radio or reading the daily newspaper? The Santa Cruz Police Department confronted these challenges when a major sinkhole blocked the city's most heavily traveled intersection in late 2009. The intersection provides access to the highway and serves as a major arterial point for more than 100,000 vehicles daily. The Police Department used a traditional method to inform the public, issuing press releases to the local media. It didn't work. Parents, unaware of the situation, waited hours in traffic to pick up their children. Shoppers were stranded with melting groceries as they waited for the intersection to be cleared. Traffic backed up for more than two miles. It took nearly six hours to clear the traffic and two days to repair the sinkhole.