CHP-West Valley Working to Start Nixle Service

The California Highway Patrol's West Valley Station is working to start up a Nixle alert system and a Twitter.

The Nixle system, which sends out alerts over text messaging and email, would be used to inform motorists of serious accidents and road closures in the CHP's West Valley Area, Officer Leland Tang said at a PCH Task Force meeting Wednesday in Pacific Palisades. The CHP West Valley Area includes the cities of Malibu, Calabasas, Agoura, Woodland Hills and Topanga.

Tang said he put in an application to begin a CHP West Valley Twitter account and Nixle service two years ago, and that he was recently informed that officials in Sacramento approved his idea.

"It will be very local," Tang said of the content on both services.

The services will be up and running once the CHP irons out its policies on who can post information to the accounts and other guidelines.

"I’m just waiting right now," he said.

The alerts will especially come in handy on spans of Pacific Coast Highway on the eastern end of Malibu from Sunset Boulevard to the city limits.