Shores Public Safety resuscitates public safety alert system

Indian River Shores residents might remember getting text messages or emails from the town’s public notification system having to do with crime, fraud and scam alerts, road hazards and closures, and other public safety information, but that those alerts stopped coming years ago.

Now the town has a new system called CodeRED to send out similar alerts, but residents have to sign up to be included

Contact information from the old My Community Watch database was not automatically transferred to CodeRED, so the Shores is starting mostly from scratch.

Capt. Mark Shaw said this next-generation notification system will provide a variety of benefits for Shores residents. “The nice thing about this one is we can narrow it down to subdivision and not a blanket alert for the whole town. Something may only apply to a specific area. This one is much more user friendly but we have to get residents to sign up or else it won’t work,” Shaw said.

Shores Public Safety Director Chief Rich Rosell emphasized that, although residents may have grown accustomed to getting blast emails from Town Clerk Laura Aldrich about town business, or alerts from their individual gated communities, “No one should automatically assume his or her phone number is included [in CodeRED].”

Town officials want all individuals and businesses to log onto the Indian River Shores Public Safety Department website, www.irspsd.org, and follow the link to the “CodeRED Community Notification Enrollment” page.

Those without Internet access may call Lt. Chris Beaumont at (772-231-2451 ext. 248), between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday to supply their information over the phone.

Required information includes first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code, and primary phone number; additional phone numbers can be entered as well.

Shaw and Rosell said all businesses located in or doing business within the town should register, as well as all individuals who have unlisted phone numbers, who have changed their phone number or address within the past year, and those who use a cellular phone or VoIP phone as their primary number.

Comments are closed.