Residents of each of the Grosse Pointes need to ask if their city uses Nixle. Residents can register for Nixle for each of the Pointes and Harper Woods.
In addition, enter the telephone numbers for each of the police departments in your cell phones (and those of your children)and use it when you see something suspicious. Let's hope the Grosse Pointe leadership works collaboratively to address the crime wave that is washing across Mack Avenue long before expensive studies are concluded or the next prayer breakfast!
Grosse Pointe City 886-3200
Grosse Pointe Farms 885-2100
Grosse Pointe Park 822-7400
Grosse Pointe Shores 881-5500
Grosse Pointe Woods 343-2400

The fact that the officer that updates Nixle was in the field and the information became "cold" is unacceptable. Without a backup in place, particularly for a situation such as this, it renders Nixle a useless tool.

Oh thats great the officer that is in charge of the Nixle was off. Isnt there other officers that can put the issues out there also?

I just checked my nixle subscription and i never received an email or SMS text message regarding any of the events posted. Can anyone confirm if they are receiving the alerts when they are actually posted?

What are we supposed to think about our community safety when 4 police departments (GPP, GPF, GPW, HW) assisted GPC in locating this suspect and came up with nothing? I work in mid-town and a trend we are seeing more and more of is "Apple Picking". Brazen, daytime, and very often public thefts of iPhones right out of people's hands. This is not just a GP trend but a national one.

It sure sounds like our friends in Detroit and HW have lost all respect for GP law enforcement.

Perhaps that's the issue?

After reading the couple comments before this one I called the Chief and asked him if there was someone else who could put that on Nixle. His reply was that he would love to have enough personnel to have someone sitting in the station, waiting to put a Niixle alert on during the pursuit of a suspect, but in reality during a situation like this, everyone is responding to a active scene and there is no one left siting around to type on the Nixle website. He then went onto explain that his four officers on duty were working 4 different incidents at the same time this call came in. He also said that Nixle alerts must be reviewed for content prior to being submitted.

Be prepared for more of this if our millage doesnt pass this November in GPW... The police force is at an all time low with patrols and barely have a traffic officer now. We truly need to stick together as a community and not see the beautiful pointes fall because of economic hardships....I'M VOTING YES FOR THE MILLAGE !

Bradley, I received an email Nixle alert.

Grosse Pointe is Safe, Low Crime Community, Chiefs Say
http://grossepointe.patch.com/articles/grosse-pointe-is-safe-low-crime-community-chiefs-say
Does anyone remember this Patch article from January 2012? Chiefs report crime is down! I think before we start throwing money at public safety we better get the facts and make sure those who are already getting paid to protect us agree with the analysis. Judging by the article, our perception is not supported by the statistics.

I urge the residents of the Grosse Pointes to take action NOW and stop the flow of criime coming into your cities. I'm afraid it's too late for my beloved city of Harper Woods.

Thanks Chief for posting it 36 hours later and then sitting down like you addressed the concerns of the people who pay you. Chief says GP is safe, low crime, what about the Coins and Stamps building that was robbed three times and fire bombed and nobody arrested. Crowther Carpets moved out of there right after it happened. That's how these things start. Scum from Detroit starts burning down buildings and then merchants move out. Don't believe me? Look across Mack Ave. for proof.

If there has ever been a headline meant to make us look like racist snobs this is it: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/09/grosse_pointe_resident_calls_d.html

Just like the school residency we need to tell the white guilt, racists calling morons to shove it and that we are going to run our community in a manner that is safe, clean and promotes our property values.

I would probably be safe in assuming the Chief also doesn't think this internet thing is going to catch on. Ever see an older cop type up a report? Takes about two hours to type six sentences. Was the Chief and everybody actively working on this issue for 36 hours before the alert went out? If a giant criminal is creeping around in the neighborhood with a gun shoving little girls to the ground i want to flip'n know about it. Totally out of tune with reality. There's no excuse for an alert taking that long to go out.

I just conducted a little, totally non scientific experiment. I was out on an errand between 2:20 and 2:40 p.m. so I drove the length of Mack from Vernier to Alter. I saw jay walkers crossing Mack from Detroit heading to the local party store and a late 20's bicyclist wearing a hoodie and a doo rag crossing Mack to Kerby. I saw Detroit EMS vehicles, one parked at Bigby and another pulling away from Jets pizza. The first TWO police vehicles I saw were at Mack and Whittier (GPP), flashers on, with a single woman stopped. On my return trip she and the two police cars were still there and being I was stopped at the light I asked her what she did to garner two police cars, flashers on. She said she sped. Hmmh. I don't know how you deter crime when there is no visible police presence on Mack or when it is visible it is stopping speeders. Does anyone think the mayors and our councils and police chiefs and city administrators need to release crime statistics and what is happening on a more than annual basis? How about the War Memorial organizing a forum of our elected leaders to discuss this and televising it on Channel 5? Any leaders out there?

Read this one titled:
"Grosse Pointe resident calls Detroit "third world country" after man pulls gun on two sisters.
Note the comments made by GPC mayor.
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/09/grosse_pointe_resident_calls_d.html

3rd world country, exactly what it is too. Why we left Southwest Detroit in 1989.

Gloria, i'm not using scare tactics at all, just pointing to the truth. I agree with you on some points as far as (2) City Clerks, Attorney health care and council pay and commision parties. Even with these cuts it does not come close to covering the $2.5 million lost in taxable values. The other cuts Ms. Howle presents are reckless at best, if she did her homework she would know that many employees are certified through the state w/ pesticides license, water license, required poloice training etc and " MUST" go to junketts, classes and seminars etc.... From what i'm told Ms. Howle has never bothered to visit these Departments ever. I talked to the DPW men working and they showed me their 10-15 yr old trucks that are rusting away and dangerous. This entire city has an infrastructure thats falling apart because of spending freezes the last 4 yrs. Tennis courts at Ghesquire, Gazebo torn down from rotting and a community center falling apart. I have pride in this city and will vote to give my tax dollars back !

Get involved, go outside and confront these predators.its only going to get worse. They have stripped Detroit of all it's worth. More police, more force, that's what Crack heads understand

Christopher: the point of the article and the comments relate to the criminal activity that residents perceive is rising and what sorts of things can be done about that YET the administrations of the cities state statistics do not support our perception. ( see the articles I linked above along with the comments from the GPC mayor in the MLive link affirming it's perception not reality). There also is concern about how the NIxle program is used to alert residents of criminal activity. I doubt few object to supporting public safety but an increasing number of people also want the resources available to be used efficiently and in all areas of government. The mantra I hear is doing more with less. Nothing you talk about above will make people "feel" safer and city administrations say crime is not a problem. There may be some (and I am not among them ) who say we could use fewer public safety officers given our city leaders say there is not a problem! Nice try making the concern about a gun pulled on young girls in Grosse Pointe City on a Sunday morning turn into talking about the millage proposal in Grosse Pointe Woods.

I do not doubt that when people get desperate they do desperate things. I also agree there is a culture of crime and disregard for law and order never before seen in our history. The citizens have to help with more phone calls to the police,more open eyes and ears. The police have to take each call seriously.

City residents: don't let your civic officials sell you a bill of goods and let your dispatch services be consolidated, as ex-mayor Cooper did in Grosse Pointe Shores. All you need to to is come to the Shores Council meetings and hear the litany of complaints from residents about how response times have gotten worse now that the Shores dispatch services have been farmed out. Police services need to be beefed up in view of what is happening in the world around us, not cut back!

To take over 24 hours to get a community alert out about a dangerous situation is completely unacceptable, but even more egregious was Chief Poloni's phony excuse. A great example of what happens when cities make personnel decisions in order to save a few bucks by hiring a retiree from somewhere else, and not having the goal of finding the best person out there for the job.

Well I guess instead of relying on Nixle, we'll all have to listen to the police frequency live to here about incidents....
http://audio7.radioreference.com/483116867

Something else that I find worrisome and that I am surprised no one has commented on is the watered down stranger alert email that was sent by GPPS. The email gives no description other than "older male" it goes on that the older male "approached" the girls "showed them a weapon" and "took a cell phone". I realize that the armed assault did not take place on GPPSS grounds or even on a school day but that was a very poor communication from GPPSS. A brazen criminal pulled a gun on a child in our community out in the open in broad daylight. It should have been mentioned in the alert. I am appreciative that the school system even sent out an alert but the quality of the communication should have been much better.

Nixle should work, it should be something that can be instantly updated by the dispatcher sitting at the phones, the chief and any officer sitting around the office. However, until a time comes when Nixle is actually working (or better the city using Nixle appropriatly) there is another solution. Sort of. Any one with a smart phone, tablet, etc... (any app based device) can download a police scanner app that will allow you to hear what is going on in the area. Not a great solution (really not a solution at all) but at least it is out there. I use it occasionally when I hear sirens lasting a little longer than they should, or whenever I see a police car drive down my street (because they don't patrol my street).

Why the hell were only 4 officers on duty? Come on gpc. Get it together and patrol patrol patrol. Put more cops on the road Or you will see more for ale signs all around town

I miss the dmz that existed when the DPD had required residency.

Did you hear about the Armed Robbery in the Park today and the stolen car and the GPP cop almost being run over by the suspect. In the City you only have 4 officers on the beat at a time and one of them has to play fireman because they have to cover those jobs too. Do you also know that there are limited police in all of the pointes and that they have to help between the cities to cover. Did you know that the city manager for the city is spending big money on a high priced consulting firm to look at consolidating the Park and City, he is also paying a high price attorney to negotiate the contract between the city and the police officers. Maybe that money should be spent on a couple of more officers.

Okay, here's an idea. I heard about the robbery of the girls only about two-and-a half hours later at a soccer game. The email alert from a friend came in about 30 minutes after that. Since the rumor mill in Grosse Pointe works so much faster than the public administrators do and it apparently takes the police 144 man-hours to update Nixle (that's 36 hours times four police) how about letting the citizens update Nixle! That be an improvement to timeliness of important notification and a reduction of police department workload. Sounds like a win-win.