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Q – What does SMS stand for?
A – Short Message Service. Text messages sent via cell phone are considered SMS messages.
Q –Is this product secure?
A – Yes, We’ve gone to great lengths to apply an encrypted alias ID to the originating number Your phone number will not
be known to the City of Middletown Police Department. Only your assigned concerned citizen code will be known.
Q – So just what does this SMS stuff make possible?
A – A concerned citizen will now be able to submit an anonymous tip to the City of Middletown Police Department via text message from their cell phone. The City of Middletown Police will also be able to reply back to you. This is done without knowing your true identity. See how it works.
Q – Is there a limit to the amount of text per message?
A – Yes, 160 characters per text.
Q – What are the various components of a text message used in the tip submission process?
A – There are three main parts to a text message.
The Short Code – This is the actual number the tip is sent to rather than a phone number. Our code is CRIMES (274637). You can just select the letters “CRIMES” on a standard cell phone and it will input 274637. On PDA’s the numbers will not match and you must enter 274637.
The Keyword – A concerned citizen only needs to include the keyword on our SMS tips the very first time they submit a tip. After that, our system is intelligent enough to know where to route all subsequent traffic from that device. Our keyword is TIPS341
The Message Body – contains the keyword initially, and then the actual text of the message.
Q – So how does the process actually work? What are the steps, etc?
A – The concerned citizen sends in the first message, which is formatted with a keyword. They will text TIPS341 plus their message to CRIMES (274637). No keyword or agency id or any other identifier is ever needed for any subsequent replies to us. Newly initiated messages by the concerned citizen that are not straight replies to us may simply be sent to CRIMES, with no keyword being needed.
A sample message would look like:
TIPS341 John Doe is in class at the Middletown High School with a gun in his backpack
Q – What about tips received after hours and over weekends?
A – Tips are reviewed on a daily bases, however, there could be lag time from when you send a tip and when it is reviewed. Please call 845-343-3151 for any time sensitive tips. NEVER report a need for immediate police assistance via text messaging. Please call 845-343-3151 or 911 for immediate police assistance.
Q – Is this like a new digital text message 911 reporting system?
A – NO. This should never be promoted for use in emergencies or on very urgent matters. There are far too many things that could happen which could delay or even prevent delivery of the message and depending on when it is submitted it could be a while before it is even seen. This is a very complicated process that normally gets the message from phone to application in a few seconds, and vice-versa, but since it involves multiple servers, the public internet, an aggregator and many individual carriers. There are many potential ways things can go wrong and delivery not go as expected. These things are out of our control and should be rare but they are inherent risks none the less. So again, use this as a new tool to allow cell phone users to submit tips via text message but never promote it or rely on it to be any type of emergency reporting tool.
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