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Not a telemarketer? Maybe it's the police
By ANGELA MOORE © St. Petersburg Times, published September 4, 2000 TAMPA -- That pre-recorded message coming out of the other end of your telephone line may sound like the latest barrage of pesky telemarketers, but don't hang up just yet. It could be the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office or the Tampa Police Department, calling with information to protect your property or your family. Last month, the Sheriff's Office began using an emergency notification system called Reverse 911, an automated dialing system that can deliver messages to every phone in the county or only to the phones in one neighborhood. The city of Tampa has had the system since the spring. The possibilities, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter, are endless. "If a small child is missing in one neighborhood, it's a great tool we have," Carter said. "Instead of deputies going door to door, which is very time-consuming, we can notify that entire neighborhood in a matter of minutes." Tampa police have used the system mostly to announce neighborhood watch meetings, but spokesman Joe Durkin said the system will be invaluable in an emergency. "Its real use isn't going to be known until we have a serious crisis going on," Durkin said, "like the tanker spill we had a couple of years ago, when we had to evacuate a mile radius in a few minutes. Instead of sending officers door to door, we can get everyone out quickly with a message with detailed instructions." Tampa police used Reverse 911 when Vice President Al Gore came to Tampa. The machine called phones in the Westshore area with a message about road closures for Gore's motorcade. "People really appreciated the heads-up," Durkin said. But people can only get the heads-up if they listen to the message. Durkin and Carter says some hang-ups on Reverse 911 are expected. "In such an automated world, people are so conditioned to computerized messages that they may get annoyed with a recording and hang up before they realize it's the Sheriff's Office," Carter said. "We're trying to get the word out about Reverse 911 so people start listening." Upon receiving the first message, anyone can choose an option over the phone that would leave their phone number out of the program in the future. So far, 600 people in Hillsborough have opted out. Sigma Micro, a company in Indianapolis, originally developed the reverse dialing system for a narrow purpose: In case of a spill, chemical companies could call all the homes around the plant in minutes. But then the town of Maryville, Ind., started to use the system for its public agencies, something the company hadn't thought of. "We kind of grew in their creativity," said Mindy Porter, director of operations for Reverse 911 at Sigma Micro. The company has installed Reverse 911 systems in 100 communities across the country. Hillsborough County's system is one of its largest.
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From the Times |
