Sign up for alerts from the Woonsocket Police Department on Nixle, and you'll get word of parking bans and traffic advisories straight to your pocket or computer. 

The Nixle Community Information Service allows the WPD to send messages to subscribed residents instantly via cell phone text message and/or email. Notifications can also be accessed online at Nixle’s web site at www.nixle.com, according to a relase from Woonsocket Public Information Officer Jamie Paone.

Messages may also include informaton about missing persons and other safety and community event information.

Paone said the system has been available to the department for some time, but wasn't used much in the past. Now, she said, they're going to start tapping its potential.

The messages can be sent specifically to residents registered within a quarter-mile radius, giving them the opportunity to receive information relevant only to their neighborhood. Residents can choose to recieve information from a number of local agencies, including police and fire departments and schools. Subscribers can also choose the way in which alerts are received, whether by email, text message, or over the web.

Woonsocket Police also maintain a Twitter account,  https://twitter.com/woonsocketpd