Reverse 911 Press Release

The Burlington Police Department is pleased to announce that we have acquired a Reverse 911 system.

Reverse 911 is an advanced computer controlled phone system that can perform several different functions. It is mainly used for community notification during emergencies (like the 911 phone system in reverse). In emergency notification mode, the system can send out a recorded phone message to several phone numbers at once and continue the process until every phone in a designated area has been called. The areas can be as small as one street and can be as large as the entire town.

The Reverse 911 system can also be used to send out non-emergency informational messages to large numbers of people. The Burlington Police Department has successfully used the system to notify over 5800 phone customers about a town-wide water ban and has recently sent out a safety reminder about the first day of school.

Reverse 911 notifications can also be sent out in the form of fax messages to designated fax lines and TTY calls to the deaf and hard of hearing. Reverse 911 will also detect answering machines and leave messages for people who aren’t at home to answer their phone.

The Reverse 911 System has several other capabilities that go beyond making simple notifications. The system can be interactive and request touch-tone phone responses from callers. The system can be set up to do telephone surveys to ask the opinions of people who want to tell the Burlington Police Department what they think.

The Burlington Police Department will also use the system to operate an automated telephone bulletin board system. This bulletin board system will be used to issue press releases, distribute information about upcoming events, conduct surveys, answer routine questions and provide fax-on-demand service.

Fax-on-demand service will allow callers to electronically request and receive forms and bulletins on their fax machines or computers with fax receiving capabilities. Some forms that will be offered include blank motor vehicle crash reports and the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles complaint of erratic operation form. Bulletins could possibly include press releases, detour maps, missing person notices or wanted posters.

One of the most impressive features of Reverse 911 is the ability to do automatic well-being checks on residents and businesses that wish to subscribe to what is called Guardian Calling. Guardian Calling gives the Burlington Police Department the ability to make regular checks on homebound senior citizens, victims of domestic violence or workers at high-risk occupations that work alone late at night.

Guardian Calling will call the phone numbers of people who subscribe to the service and ask them to type in a code on their touch-tone phone to indicate that they are fine. If the subscriber does not answer their phone after a certain number of attempts by the system or if they type in an incorrect code the Reverse 911 system will sound an alarm at the Burlington Police Dispatch center and make telephone notifications to up to three people of the subscribers choosing.

The Burlington Police Department is proud to be able to offer these new services. We hope that these new capabilities will improve the quality of life for our residents and for the people who work in our town.

If you have any questions about the Burlington Police Departments Reverse 911 program, if you would like your name and number included in the systems database or if you are interested in Guardian Calling contact Sergeant Glen Mills at 781-505-4945 or e-mail gamills@burlmass.org. If you would like to learn more about reverse 911 and how other communities have used the system log on to: http://www.r911.com/