Money wasted on archaic / redundant reverse 911 backup to county's system

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Money wasted on archaic / redundant reverse 911 backup to county's system

New $180,000 reverse 911 backup to county's system described as archaic

By Craig Gustafson
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 23, 2007

SAN DIEGO – This month, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and his staff gave a detailed demonstration of how the city's new $180,000 Reverse 911 system would be able to phone residents quickly in emergencies such as a fire or tsunami.

No longer would health or safety personnel have to go door to door as they did last year for a boil-water order after the discovery of E. coli in tap water in northeastern San Diego. What Sanders didn't say was that county government has purchased a newer, better, faster alert system for roughly the same price that the city can use for free.

Reverse 911 – which can send 30-second phone messages to land lines – is not new for San Diegans. The county bought the system in August 2005 and allows cities to use it for larger-scale emergencies. It was most recently used to notify residents during the Angel fire near Julian last weekend.

The county, however, has bought a brand-new, technologically advanced system that allows public safety officials to call cell phones as well as send text messages and e-mail. It was launched Thursday. The county is using its Reverse 911 system as a backup.

Several public safety officials describe Reverse 911 as archaic. At least one prominent politician is puzzled by the city's decision to buy it when a better system is available for free.

County Supervisor Chairman Ron Roberts, who also chairs the county's Unified Disaster Council, said the city could have found a better use for its money.

“I think it's kind of an extravagance. We will have a system that will be operating that'll be far superior. And I don't see us continuing with that other (Reverse 911) contract,” Roberts said. “If the city thinks they have a reason to, God knows they'd have to explain that.”

San Diego city officials purchased Reverse 911 in September 2006 shortly after the boil-water order. They wanted more control over how to release emergency information and didn't want to go through the sheriff as the county's Reverse 911 system required.

The whole article at Union Tribune

No comments:

How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Sunday, September 23, 2007