WIRED ON FRIDAY: A telephone notification system enables emergency services to contact the public

After September 11th, the Irish Government set up the Emergency Planning Task Force. One of its tasks is to determine how to issue alerts to the public in the event of a catastrophe such as an attack on the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. While sending a message through the national and local broadcasting media is one method, a technology the task force may wish to consider is one called Reverse911.

The US version of the Irish 999 for emergency services is 911. Reverse911 is a computerised telephone notification system that allows the emergency services to contact the public. The aim is to alert specific geographic areas or communities to an emergency situation such as fires, hurricanes, floods or gas leaks.

One example of how the system works occurred in Florida in April of this year. A three-year-old girl wandered from her home, and her father called 911 to notify the police that his daughter was missing.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office activated its Reverse911 system to notify residents near the girl's home. A neighbour received the recorded telephone alert and within minutes found the unharmed child and returned her to her parents.

Sigma Communications of Indianapolis, which is a subsidiary of Sigma Micro Corporation, developed Reverse911 in 1993 as an Interactive Community Notification system.

Reverse911 is a Windows-based computer program that allows a dispatcher to quickly create an emergency message. Then, using a map on the screen, he can select which area should receive a call.

Using a database of publicly available telephone numbers and Geographic Information Systems' mapping technologies, the system can place calls within a region. The system can also create specific lists of people to contact, such as community watch personnel.

Sigma Communications supplies all of the required hardware and software, as well as the necessary installation, training and support. The customer buys the hardware initially and pays annually for the software and updates. Customers can also buy a program called laplink so they can access the database remotely. How often the database and maps are updated all depends on the level of support that is purchased.

Mr Al Langsenkamp, chief executive of Reverse911, said the minimum number of times the database is updated is once a year, and the maximum once a month. Generally, communities opt for twice-yearly updates.

Since its inception eight years ago, 200 communities have bought the programme.

"We've certainly had examples of missing children being found, burglaries put to an end, two incidences of elderly patients being saved and some prison escapees apprehended," Mr Langsenkamp said.

His competitor in the United States is Dialogic Corp, which is owned by Intel.

An eight-line Reverse911 system can make 960 30-second calls in one hour, while a 24-line system can place 2,880 calls in one hour. Unlisted phone numbers do not appear in the database.

To overcome this, some communities have sent out notices to all businesses and homes asking for unlisted numbers so that all residents can be contacted in the event of an emergency.

For police departments that use the system, it frees up officers from having to go door-to-door or driving around to make public address announcements. This way, they can focus on tackling crimes or other matters.

According to an article in the Seattle Times, the Bellevue Police Department's Reverse911 was pressed into action even before it had been unveiled to the public. When there was a gas leak, the police used the system to notify 112 homes within a five-block radius of the leak and warned them to close all their windows. Once the leak was repaired, a follow-up message was sent.

The Bergenfield Office of Emergency Management in New Jersey is currently setting up a public emergency notification network using Reverse911. It has spent $26,000 to buy a 16-line system and has trained six people to use it. The office has requested that everyone in the 2.5 square mile area phone in so it can double-check their names, addresses, telephone numbers and four-digit zip code extensions.

Mr Thomas Rose, Bergenfield's emergency management co-ordinator, said the system has been activated once. During the summer, the office needed to notify the town's 24,000 residents that it would be spraying to target the West Nile Virus.

"We made over 5,000 calls in 11 hours," Mr Rose said, and the campaign was backed up with a flyer distributed through the post office.

Once someone recorded the message, the computer started making calls and kept a log. Some phone numbers turned out to be fax machines.

However, the system kept track of how many messages were delivered to an answering machine, to a live person or whether the phone just kept on ringing. This allowed officers to decide what homes or businesses might need personal follow-up.

"Realistically, we expect to use Reverse911 three or four times a year," Mr Rose said. "We need to educate the public that if they change their phone number, they need to contact us."

carolpower@ireland.com