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For Riverdale Park's police department, embracing new technology is nothing new.

In 2008, the town was the first municipality in Maryland to sign up for CrimeReports.com, a free Web site that displays reported incidents on an interactive map.

Now the town is one of few in the state to send its residents e-mail, text and Web alerts about crimes and emergencies through Nixle, a free system that allows governmental agencies to send alerts to subscribers.

Alerts are sent out to subscribers based on their addresses. Officers in Riverdale Park last week began subscribing residents to the system. The town began sending alerts last week.

At least 100 Riverdale Park residents signed up for the service during the town's National Night Out event Aug. 4.

Nixle certifies that government agencies subscribing to the system are legitimate, said the company's senior director of operations, Bonnie Miller.

The technology also allows agencies to synchronize official Nixle accounts to existing Twitter accounts, Miller said. She added that Nixle differs from Twitter in that agencies that subscribe must prove they are who they claim they are through photo and other forms of identification.

Riverdale Park Mayor Vernon Archer compared Nixle to the telephone trees that Neighborhood Watch groups use, Chief of Police Teresa Chambers said.

"[A telephone tree] was word-of-mouth and it was a system that worked when there was nothing else," Chambers said. "We're beyond that. ... Word-of-mouth works, but we've also got to further it."

Nixle unveiled the free system in March and has at least 1,500 government agencies using it, Miller said. Riverdale Park is the sixth agency in Maryland to sign up.

The Laurel Police Department, the City of Frederick and the Denton Police Department in Caroline County are among the Maryland agencies using the system. Baltimore city's list already has at least 3,000 subscribers, Miller said.

Chambers said she will soon promote the service on town e-mail listservs and at community meetings.

The company offers the base system to governments for free, because it also sells supplemental and other services and products that generate a profit, such as a messaging system for private companies, Miller said.

Some town residents don't speak English, Chambers said, so the department will send out some alerts in Spanish until Nixle develops technology that allows subscribers to receive messages in other languages. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 28.3 percent of the town's population was Hispanic.

Other municipalities, such as Bowie, operate their own alert systems. Bowie used grant money to sign up for a system similar to Nixle that sends out text and e-mail alerts about crime, upcoming events and other announcements for a fee, said Bowie's communications coordinator, Una Cooper.

About 2,000 residents have signed up for Bowie's system, Cooper said, adding that she is always searching for ways to increase the number of subscribers.

"The interest is growing, because even older people who didn't really understand the technology are using cell phones," she said.

Riverdale Park residents who don't have computer access can register at Town Hall for the text message alerts, Chambers said, and she envisions nearby police departments signing up for the service and receiving Riverdale Park crime alerts that could affect them.

Nixle could help neighboring police departments communicate more effectively, especially since they use different radio channels, she said.

For example, the system could aid police if a resident reports a suspicious man driving a vehicle, Chambers said.

"There's a chance that if this guy is up to no good, my guess is that he's not just going to stop at our borders," she said. "Now, with a click of a mouse, [police departments] all have the same information."

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.