Lakewood Crime Watch

This crime watch association is going high tech to keep its neighbors safe. The Lakewood Neighborhood Association crime watch team has created a comprehensive, easy-to-use and good-looking Web site, and they’ve also set up a new state-of-the-art system of notifying members of possible dangers. The program, called “Send Word Now,” is an Internet alert system that allows LNA member Nancy Wilson to type in a message and send it instantly and simultaneously to everyone in her association. Members can choose whether they’d like to receive the message via voice mail or e-mail. Neighborhood resident Mitchell Orlowsky and his company, based in New York , designed the system, which until now has been used primarily in the security industry by large corporations such as K-mart and even the Department of Defense. But Orlowsky says there is just as much need for the system in everyday institutions such as schools and hospitals. So he decided, with the permission of his partners, to donate the Send Word Now program to the LNA crime watch. Says Orlowsky: “I’m the only officer in my company who doesn’t live in New York . I live in Lakewood . And I love it. I’d do anything to help.”