Security alert system/plan for your neighborhood Facebook group.
Getting just five minutes adance notice of a developing situation could be really important. This is a proposal for the Neighborhood Facebook group I am in.
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Neighborhood Facebook Group Alert System
There needs to be an organized Facebook neighborhood group alert system to alert the neighborhood as fast as possible and to be able to provide relevant information quickly and which can be quickly accessed. Even a few minutes might mean the difference between safety and catastrophe.
To that goal, this is a proposed Facebook Neighborhood Group alert method.
1. Before you post, use the “New” setting to see if someone else has already posting something about the situation. If so post your info as a comment in their post. If you are the first person, start your post with the capital letters, LEAD, boldface, Heading 1. This way people will quickly identify your post as the lead post.
2. After posting or commenting your info into the LEAD post, contact your neighbors by non-Facebook means, whether texting, some app, phone call, or email. Preferred is the method they are most likely to respond to the fastest. They in turn should contact others in the neighborhood.
3. The administrators can do an @everybody post in the comments for the LEAD post, so all members are alerted and directed to the LEAD post.
4. If you are out walking, run back to your house if possible and tell anyone you pass on your way. Running would be a visual cue that something is amiss.
5. Avoid false alarms. If we have regular alarming without there being a cause people won’t take an alarm seriously when they should. On the other hand, if we wait until it is absolutely known to require an alarm, we might lose valuable time. Try to use judgement. Also, if we are too cautious, we might miss a developing situation and lose time. Overall, an occasional false alarm is better than missing a needed alarm. The former might be an annoyance, the later could be catastrophic.
There should be a plan. If there is an alert, do your children know to come into the house and not dawdle? Do they know where to go into the house? Are you going to bring a pet inside? How long will you look for that pet before giving up? Where will the pet be in the house when there is a lot of noise outside? Are you closing the blinds and if so in what order? Do you go upstairs or downstairs, back of the house, or front of the house, or in the center, what room? You don’t want to be having to making decisions when you might have just 4 minutes to get in the house, close doors and windows and blinds, and hide.
Commentary
This isn’t a big thing, but every method and opportunity needs to be used to increase our security.
Addtionally, check this post out.
