Neighborhood watch is getting high tech.  A new smartphone app, SWLA Connected, is allowing local residents to keep their neighborhoods safer.  And it's free!

 

(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
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SWLA Connected is a free, smartphone app created to help make Southwest Louisiana neighborhoods safer.  This app was designed with local residents in mind and provides a way for them to stay connected to neighbors in their community.

Users can create private neighborhoods, giving a high tech edge to their neighborhood watch groups.  For example, you and your neighbors can each sign-up and create a "private group" that consists of residents on your street, block or subdivision within the app.  It's another way for you and your neighbors to communicate, express concerns, etc. as a group and all from your smartphone.  If a break-in occurs you or a neighbor in your group can notify everyone at one time.  concerns with their neighbors or with residents on the same block, street or subdivision.

KPLC TV recently aired a segment on SWLA Connected that further explains how this new app works.  Just check-out the videos below.

One of the primary reasons for the app, is preventing and reporting local crimes with our community.  KPLC reports, Cpl. Clayton Fontenot, runs a neighborhood watch group in Lake Charles and is a Neighborhood Patrol Officer with the Lake Charles Police Department.  Cpl Fontenot, spoke highly about the new app, saying that having more people involved in such groups will bring community members closer together and help put more eyes on the streets.

Fontenot said, "You don't want to wait until a tragedy happens in your neighborhood before you start meeting the people around you. You never know when you're going to need them." He added, "With our growth that's coming, there's going to be a lot of influx of people we don't know, so meeting people and being connected through apps, programs, neighborhood watch, through the police department, sheriff's office, that's very important to keep everybody safe."

To sign-up residents can go to www.swlaconnected.com and register for an account. Users will need to provide proof of residence in Southwest Louisiana.  It's important to know that this info will it not be visible by site users, it is solely to verify residence.  After that, the app is ready to be downloaded on a Apple and Android device.

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