App provides instant public safety alerts

[doobie]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/318398/app-provides-instant-public-safety-alerts?CSAuthResp=1332293104%3An1m137pmtb93cdpv0hur0qdij7%3ACSUserId|CSGroupId%3Aapproved%3ACF04DDBB18A153937EE3BF054EA60E9E&CSUserId=94&CSGroupId=1

New Hampshire citizens can now use their phone to receive up-to-the-second public safety alerts.

Ping4, a Nashua-based technology start-up, announced yesterday that the Manchester Police Department has begun using the company's Citizens Alert smartphone application to instantly alert residents about natural disasters, dangerous storms, missing persons, traffic problems, terrorist attacks and crimes in progress.

"We are pleased to be among the first public safety agencies in the country to offer this important and meaningful smartphone application for the safety and protection of our community," Manchester police Chief Dave Mara said in a statement.

The app can be downloaded for free onto an iPhone or Android device and allows law enforcement to send "immediate, localized warnings that find subscribers' smartphones wherever they may be at any given moment in time and help them steer clear of danger and find help," according to a press release. The real-time messages can be sent to smartphones in "specifically defined geographies that can be as small as a parking space or as large as a continent."

Jim Bender, CEO of Ping4 and a former U.S. Senate candidate, said the Manchester Police Department is "at the forefront of new technology wave that will sweep the world, improving Amber alerts and how all citizens are alerted of emergencies."

Wonder if it will give heads up that the police are after you when you are open carrying?