I am glad to work in a community where residents want to stay in touch with their police department. In today’s world, there are many ways to be engaged but no clear-cut favorite method among residents. Some like our CODE RED phone and text callout alerts, some prefer our e-blast notifications and others have stated a preference for social media communication.
From a police perspective, phone calls to the police department have always been and will continue to be a crucial way for us to stay engaged. Our entire 9-1-1 operation is set up assuming incoming phone calls are from people needing immediate assistance, and I don’t see that changing soon for life -emergencies. At the same time, I also recognize that the world is changing, and our communication models and tools need to keep up. With the explosion of smart phones and other mobile devices, we now have an opportunity to make it easy for residents to provide tips and ask questions through a new smart phone app.
After researching different options, we decided to make the MyPD phone app available to our residents as a way to complement our existing communications tools. MyPD is a free iPhone and Android app that lets New Albany residents and those who work here quickly connect with their local police. New Albany is now the fourth police agency in Ohio, and the first in central Ohio, to utilize MyPD.
MyPD won’t replace 9-1-1 by any means. If you see something happening that may be a medical or life-threatening emergency, we ask that you please call 9-1-1 immediately. But for those times when you have a general police question, have information about an ongoing investigation or simply want to provide feedback about our staff, this app allows you to conveniently access your police department at the touch of an icon on your mobile device.
MyPD also allows you to upload pictures along with text, something you can’t do on a phone call. This information then automatically gets sent via email to the New Albany police dispatcher on duty. Finally, the city’s police website pages are accessible through the app, allowing readers to learn more about many of the department’s outreach programs.
To download the app, simply go to http://mypdapp.com or use this QR code.
Those downloading the app will be asked to enter the country, state and city where they live. The country and state fields must be chosen before you can enter New Albany as the city. The entire process takes less than a minute. Once New Albany is chosen and the app is downloaded onto your mobile device, residents have another easy, 24/7 means of access to their local police department.
Another new service we plan to provide in the near future, hopefully by the end of the year, is Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of crimes in and around central Ohio. You may have read about BAIR Analytics p
olice crime mapping software in local newspapers or seen a story about it on a local news program. Columbus, Dublin, Reynoldsburg and Bexley as well as Franklin, Licking and Union counties have all integrated some portion of this analytics program. The mapping program itself is helping police agencies work together to establish links to crimes occurring throughout central Ohio, and many communities have made the information available to their residents.
We are currently working with BAIR and hope to have this GIS crime mapping system posted on our website for public access in the near future. We are planning to tailor the software to show the general vicinity of crimes taking place in New Albany without showing any actual location or address to protect the privacy of residents.
As excited as I am to expand our communications offerings, I can’t help reminding residents that, particularly in the event of an emergency, old-school communications work best. We live in an extremely safe community, but we are not immune to crime. Talk regularly with your neighbors. If you see or hear something that seems out of the ordinary, call New Albany police at 614-855-1234. If you believe a suspicious activity could be a life-threatening emergency, please call 9-1-1.
Greg Jones is a contributing writer and has been a New Albany police officer since 1989. He was a sergeant for more than two decades and was appointed police chief in 2013.
By Greg Jones, Police Chief
