Move Over Twitter. Step Aside Facebook. Nixle is for Real.

Launched in March, Nixle counts nearly 1,000 cities in 46 states using or testing its system. Those cities include: Los Angeles, Baltimore, Virginia Beach, Chicago and Minneapolis. And prominent sheriffs' offices using Nixle include Oakland County (suburban Detroit), Napa County, Oklahoma County (Oklahoma City) and Santa Fe County.

Meantime, more than 30,000 residents of those cities have signed up to receive Nixle alerts - a total growing by the hundreds each day.

Nixle also is popular among many of the sheriffs and law enforcement personnel attending the National Sheriff's Association 2009 Annual Conference and, as a result, the association is using Nixle this year to communicate with conference attendees. More than 3,000 attendees from all fields of criminal justice are expected to be present at the conference, slated for June 20-24 in Fort Lauderdale. Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is keynote speaker.

"It is an excellent service and I believe it is a great benefit to the community," said Sheriff David Goad, president of the National Sheriffs' Association.

"Any tool that helps us improve public safety is worth using," said Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel. "People rarely go anywhere these days without access to a cell phone or the Internet. With Nixle, we're always able to relay important information, thereby improving the community's quality of life."

Nixle should be on the lips of many attendees because this year's conference includes seminars that focus on technology, such as "Law Enforcement Information Sharing and Emerging Technology" and "Community Engagement and Trusted Communication to Residents."

Earlier this month, Nixle served as the lead sponsor at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. About 80 cities signed on with Nixle in the wake of that event.

"Nixle came out of a need for a direct communication tool for police and official agencies to reach their communities. Depending on the media is not enough, and social applications are far too dangerous to put out official information," said Craig Mitnick, Nixle founder and CEO. "Nixle is the first tool to allow for a secure and trusted communication platform for sheriffs' departments and official agencies throughout country to communicate time sensitive information in real time over cell phones, email and the Web."

About Nixle

Nixle is a community information service provider built exclusively to provide secure and reliable communications. It is the first authenticated and secure service that connects municipal agencies and community organizations to residents in real time, delivering information to geographically targeted consumers over their cell phones (via text messages), through e-mails and via Web access. Nixle has secured a partnership with Nlets (the International Justice and Public Safety Network), allowing local police departments nationwide to send immediate alerts and advisories. Privately funded Nixle, which has offices in New Jersey and California, is free to all governments, their agencies and organizations, nongovernmental organizations and consumers. For more information, visit www.nixle.com.