Darien Cops To Alert Public With Texts

DARIEN, IL – Darien police are switching to a text system to alert the public about urgent matters.

The city is going to a private vendor, Muniweb, for the subscription-based alert system, which takes effect Wednesday. For years, the city has been using X, formerly known as Twitter, to notify the public.

In 2016, the city used Nixle for text alerts for a year's free trial, but the police said only 390 people signed up. Afterward, the police said they went with X because of the $5,000-a-year costs of a text alert system.

Earlier this year, the city said text alerts and X have no functionality differences.

With X, the city has more than 2,400 followers.

The police will use its X account for urgent matters through the end of the year, Police Chief Greg Thomas told the City Council on Monday.

"We hope to get everyone moved over and using text messaging vs. Twitter," the chief said.

Thomas said the police are going with text messaging based on the direction during a goal-setting meeting last week.

In March, Brian Liedtke, a Center Cass School District 66 board member and a critic of Darien city government, questioned why the police did not have text alerts like many other towns.

"Why (does the) city feel Twitter works best for Darien and why does Darien feel they know better than all the surrounding towns who use a text message alert system, when evidence clearly shows text message responses are more reliable and easier for the end user?" Liedtke said in a text message to Patch at the time.