Business owners: Update your information!
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Imagine you’re the dispatcher for the Special Service District and a Putnam police officer finds a door unlocked at a downtown business after hours.
And you know there’s a 50 percent chance that the contact information you have for that business is completely outdated. Tick tock.
Such is the longstanding dilemma for dispatchers, according to Duane Anderson, communications supervisor.
“The information we have on hand goes back to the 1980s,” he said. Lots of business information is outdated. Key holders have changed.
He estimated that 50 percent of the time there is no information available or it’s messed up. “An alarm is going off and there is no contact information,” he said.
Some 400 businesses in the Special Services District are affected.
Anderson said the problem was continually moving to the back burner but now a solution is finished.
Special Services District businesses are urged to go to www.putnampolice.com and there is a Business Key Holder Registration form under the Resources heading.
Police Chief Christopher D. Ferace said: “The business owner can update his/her contact info, plus a primary key holder and secondary key holder. Once the form is completed, hit the submit button and it is automatically emailed back to the PD. …or you can stop by the PD complete one by hand and drop it off or email the Communication Supervisor Duane Anderson at
He added, “This updated information will certainly make the dispatcher’s job more efficient so there is accurate key holder information in the event we need to contact the business owner after hours. An example could be an alarm activation, the police in doing a business check and located an unsecured door left unlocked erroneously, or maybe we need to contact someone due to damage located. The quicker we can notify the business owner the quicker whatever the situation is, it can be remedied.
“Unfortunately, it is all based on the voluntary cooperation of the business owner. The best we can do is educate them and encourage them to participate. Obviously if we come across a business that hasn’t been updated during a call for service after hours, we will reach out to that business the following day to get it updated.” Given there are new businesses starting up, he said there is no deadline.
Anderson said the information is confidential and will never be given out to anyone. He added that dispatch also has a key lock box. “If you wish,” he said, “you can drop off a key that we can keep in there, just in case.”
Ferace added: “We encourage everyone (businesses in the Special Service District) to take advantage of this opportunity as soon as possible to insure there is contact information after business hours.”
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