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HARRISBURG, N.C. – The Cabarrus County town will soon go live with a high tech approach to fighting crime.

Some living there said when it comes to getting the word around town about crime and other public safety issues there is no effective way of communicating with one another.

"Sometimes I might find out about something days later and it's like, that would have been nice to have known," said Amanda Roughton, a barista at the Rocky River Coffee shop.

But soon a group of Harrisburg residents plan to launch what will be called the Harrisburg Public Safety Committee. Its members will consist of citizens, businesses, the sheriff's office and town council.

"Essentially use citizens as the eyes and ears to help the sheriff's department to do their job," said Mark Burch who is one of the safety committee organizers.

He says using social media to distribute crime and other such alerts will be the committee's main goal. Once the alerts go live, residents will be able to sign up for, Twitter alerts, Facebook messaging or even text messaging and e-mail," Burch said.

His group is getting input from officials at the sheriff's office who said the committee will be groundbreaking in keeping residents alerted to crime.

"Especially if we have suspects, suspect vehicles, we can get that information out to the people, what to look for," said Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office Deputy Chief Paul Hunt.

But the social media alerts won't just be useful for crime Hunt said. "In like a flooding situation, which we have had that out in that area," he said.

Roughton, an avid Facebook user, is happy to hear about the committee's plans.

"So I kind of know maybe where I should be careful or what I should be looking for," she said.

To apply for the the Public Safety Committee, fill out an application and e-mail it back.