The Missing Link in Service Delivery

In the last year, my sweet little home town of Tinley Park, Illinois, has been honored by BusinessWeek as the Best Place in America to Raise Kids (applause). More recently, the Chicago Tribune named us among the top 20 neighborhoods in Chicagoland. If you know anything about Chicago, we have more neighborhoods than Dan Hesse has television appearances, so that’s a pretty big deal too.

I am not superstitious, but accolades seem to bring noting but trouble. There is nowhere to go but down. And so it is that last week, the Verizon Wireless store – next door to the Dunkin’ Donuts at which I like to start my day – was robbed at gunpoint. And who can forget two years ago when in Tinley Park, five women were executed in a Lane Bryant store. And just today, while I typed away, windows and doors wide open to the spring breeze, four suspects allegedly invaded a home nearby and beat up my neighbors and a SWAT team was chasing them through the streets and backyards.

Why do I bring this up? Because with all the latest safety technology at my disposal, I was still oblivious to the dangers lurking outside my window. Oh, I sign up for it all. I get tweets and text messages and alerts on my television and phone calls in case of tornadoes. But it took an e-mail from my cohabitant of 32 years who works 15 miles away to tell me to go shut my doors.

The technology worked perfectly. I got a text message moments after the incident occurred, during, in fact, the alleged pursuit. I figured it was spam and ignored it. Perhaps it was a problem inherent to texting that the source of the message was not clear. But it was mostly me.

But it makes me wonder about the constant influx of messages. Should I have known when I looked at a message header from “citywatch” that it wasn’t spam from the marketers of some new restaurant or spa? Maybe. Was it obvious that my life was in potential danger? No.

My fault for ignoring it, but I think we have some kinks to work out in this new world of social media and instant messaging. How about a special ringtone for emergency situations? Or at least a header that says: DANGER or LOCK YOUR DOORS!

It’s nice to live in the Best Place in America to Raise Your Kids, but if this is the best place, I hope the rest of the country has better emergency alerts.

E-mail me at heyBOSS@vpico.com or click on the comment button below.