Original Article Safety officials happy with 'reverse 911' But system has critics Mary Jo Pitzl The Arizona Republic Dec. 5, 2004 12:00 AM A system that calls people to alert them to nearby emergencies has been used 14 times in its first year, reaching two of every three phone numbers it dials in Maricopa County. Costing $135,000 to build and $50,000 a month to maintain, it has been used chiefly to locate missing people, not to inform residents about toxic fumes or hazardous conditions. While public-safety officials are pleased with the new system, some people are asking questions about its effectiveness. The 67 percent completion rate is good enough, officials say. The Community Emergency Notification System was never intended as the only alert for area emergencies. Without a broad-based community notification, such as the defunct air-raid sirens, there's no other quick way to reach scores of people at once. But it leaves out people who don't have an answering machine, people who let their phones ring without ever picking up and those who operate with cellphones only. The Behavior Research Center Inc. estimates that 4 percent of the Valley's households are wireless, using cellphones only. In the case of an emergency in their area, "They get to die," said Steve Brittle, an environmental activist and member of Maricopa County's Local Emergency Planning Committee. The inability to call cellphones highlights one of the vulnerabilities of the system, he said. "We always said they should have this and a siren," Brittle said. "I don't know about you, but if my (home) phone rang at 3 in the morning, I don't think I'd hear it. I would hear a siren." But the sirens were phased out nearly a decade ago, as county officials lost federal funding for the effort and as the cost of maintaining and expanding the system overwhelmed county resources. "As the city grew, there wasn't enough money to keep up with it," said Tom Beckett, communications and warning coordinator for Maricopa County's Emergency Management Department. A survey 10 years ago determined 350 new sirens were needed, at a cost of $38,000 each to purchase, locate and install, Beckett said. That penciled out to more than $13 million. Plus, the sirens had their shortcomings, he said. Not everyone was within earshot of the shrill horns, and they couldn't convey a tailor-made message, Beckett said. The phone system can deliver a specific alert to a defined area and can send out as many as 2,000 calls a minute, if needed. It functions as a reverse 911 program: Instead of individuals calling public-safety officials about emergencies, officials call people in a given area. "It's better than any other type of tool out there," said Officer Mike Pea, spokesman for the Glendale Police Department. The alternative is to go door to door, and that chews up valuable time in an emergency, he said. "We've located children, lost kids, within minutes," Pea said. Glendale has used the system most heavily in its first year of operation, tapping the phone network 10 times, records show. The program was initially sold as a way to alert people to public-health emergencies, such as toxic-chemical releases. Its debut was for that purpose: The system was first deployed in November 2003 to alert Glendale and Phoenix residents to a chlorine leak at a recycling plant. But the phone network has been used predominantly to locate missing people or to inform people about dangerous suspects, records show. Of the 14 alerts, only four have related to potentially toxic releases. Steve Owens, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said the phone system was never intended to be used only for public-health emergencies. "We would have some questions if it was done to the exclusion of environmental projects," Owens said. But that hasn't been the case. The phone system was set up with a $2.5 million settlement from a lawsuit that state and federal environmental officials brought against the parent company of TRW, an airbag manufacturer in the East Valley. Operators estimate they have enough money to keep operating for an additional two years. After that, they'll need to find a new source to pay Qwest the estimated $50,000-a-month maintenance fee. The money keeps 1,000 phone circuits at the ready, as well as paying for constant updates to the 2.3 million-plus phone numbers in the database, said Jeff Mirasola, a Qwest spokesman. The year-old system got its broadest use Oct. 5, when 9,739 households in Glendale were called after a 4-year-old boy went missing. Of those calls, 71 percent went through, which means residents either answered the phone or an answering device did. And people responded, Pea said. "We couldn't believe it," he said. "People were out on bikes, walking around. Someone heard a faint horn honking." That led police to a garage where they found the boy, playing around in a car. The boy had entered a house through a doggie door, meandered through the kitchen and then into the garage with its unlocked car, Pea said. Glendale police also used the phone system in September, when two suspects held three people hostage in an apartment complex. The phone system contacted 1,914 homes during the 29-hour ordeal, reaching 68 percent. But the calls didn't get through to Jennifer Merrill and her mother, who were notified of the hostage situation by an officer knocking on their door. Their phone service was off due to the crisis, she said. Liz Hunt, who administers the regionwide phone system, said records show people rarely hang up before the message gets out. Messages typically start with an admonition that it is an emergency communication from the local police or fire department. "They get them on the hook right away, so they know it's an emergency and not someone selling lower loan rates," she said. Phones with Caller ID get a printout on their screen that says "priority alert" or "alert call." Messages are recorded in English, followed by Spanish. Hunt said the calls that don't go through either ring to a fax machine, a computer modem, or are never picked up by the resident. She acknowledged that cellphones aren't covered but said she's hopeful that technology might fill the gap, such as with a blanket text message to all who register their phones with the regional system. Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at (602) 444-8963.