The 68th Precinct has turned to email as a way of getting important information out, quickly, to a wide range of people across Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton.
Since this summer, issues of concern have been flagged in email messages to a growing list of area residents kept by the 68th Precinct Community Council.
It began in July when Con Edison was worried about the possibility of a blackout occurring in portions of southwestern Brooklyn, where a Con Ed feeder line was impaired. The utility was hoping to stave off problems by alerting as many people as they could, and asking them to go easy on their power consumption to avoid overburdening the system.
For this reason, Deputy Inspector Eric Rodriguez, the precinct’s commanding officer, turned to Ilene Sacco, the president of the 68th Precinct Community Council, and asked her to forward the warning to everyone on her email list, asking them in turn to forward the warning to other people they knew who lived in the area.
While the blackout fortunately didn’t occur, the system that was put in play has taken on a life of its own. “The email list started by accident,” Sacco acknowledged. “When we began getting a lot of compliments on it, we started doing it more.”
Since the summer, the email list has been used to send out a variety of alerts, including a tropical storm warning in early September, a warning about “severe weather conditions” at the end of that month, a sketch of a rapist who had struck in the area just a couple of weeks ago, and, most recently, a list of burglary-prevention tips aimed at helping residents protect their homes from being broken into.
“We will contact people about crimes that are going on, but good stuff too,” Sacco stressed.
To make the email alert system even more effective, the precinct community council is looking to expand their email list.
“We are doing everything we can to get our contact list up,” averred Sacco. “The best thing we can do is make information available both ways. It’s a smart way to do things. It’s important that people address their concerns to us, tell us what’s going on, because no one can be everywhere.”
At a public safety town hall meeting held by State Senator Marty Golden at Our Lady of Angels, 337 74th Street, residents were urged to sign up for the list, which now numbers close to 1,000 individuals, Sacco said. They were also encouraged to sign up during the October meeting of the Dyker Heights Civic Association, held at St. Philip’s Parish Hall, 1072 80th Street.
Indeed, Sacco said she has been attending “every meeting I could possibly make over the past two months,” to introduce area residents to the list.
Those interested in being added to it should send an email to 68thcommunitynotification@ gmail.com.
