Residents Push for Alert System for Robynwyn, Palmetto Park

Will Summerville adopt an alert system for residents like those on college campuses?

Residents of Robynwyn and Palmetto Park have requested the Town of Summerville look into the matter of setting up a text or Twitter alert system so the community can be aware when violent crime occurs.

"We believe we can work for this ... and this can work as a model throughout the United States," community member and organizer Louis Smith said to town council last week.

Smith and others from the Robynwyn community implored town council last week. They have coalesced in response to last month's deadly shooting of a man in his driveway. The person or people who may have fired about a dozen bullets to slay John Elliot Hancock remain at large.

The community efforts to stamp out violence began with a candlelight vigil, but just hours after the vigil ended, another shooting was reported in Robynwyn. 

"We have to go further than that. Due to the recent wave of violence, we're promoting a civic organization ... to combat crime in our area," Smith said. 

Creating a texting emergency network modeled off of that employed at Virginia Tech after the 2007 mass shooting, and creating a community taskforce will help combat crime, Smith said.

He said that in Robynwyn and Palmetto Park more than 1,000 residents were willing to give their cell phone numbers so they can deal with emergencies in real time.

"We're tired of the violence. We love Summerville, we like what Summerville stands for but we are sick and tired of the violence," Smith said. 

 The task force would look "at the systemic problems that exist in our community and come up with some real solutions," he said.

Summerville Mayor Bill Collins said he will begin discussions on the matter. Summerville's information technology Manager Leonard Larkin said something like CodeRed might be most appropriate for the situation in the community. CodeRed is a high-speed notification system employed by governments. 

"We are tyring to come up with a system that will effectively do what you want to do," Larkin told Smith at the meeting.

The Post and Courier reported there are versions of the system already are in use in Charleston and Berkeley counties. Folly Beach even has a system. But Summerville and Dorchester County does not, but does have a reverse 911 system for landline phones to alert communities, the Post and Courier reported.