The Vernon Hills Police Department has a great communications tool available to reach the community. It's called Blackboard Connect. It's a mass notification system that allows us to quickly reach anyone at any time in an emergency or other outreach situation.

Depending on whether or not it's directed at a specific geographic area or the entire Village, any Vernon Hills resident (or business) that has a published landline will automatically receive a Blackboard Connect phone call. However, the system will allow for additional phone numbers (such as cell numbers) and email addresses to be used in the event a mass notification is needed.

Let's use a natural gas leak as an example. In a situation such as this, we can determine what geographic area should be notified. For purposes of this example, if we select a specific geographic area, any published land line within the selected area will receive a call. If the resident within this area has a cell number or email address in the database, those will also be utilized.

If you are a Vernon Hills resident and do not have a published land line, you are encouraged to enter your information into the system. Likewise, if you do have a published phone number, you can sign up and add additional contact information (cell number and email addresses).