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Most Shelton residents know they can call 9-1-1 to get assistance in the event of a police, fire or medical emergency. With the CT Emergency Notification system, Shelton’s emergency services personnel can also notify residents and businesses about a potential emergency circumstance.
The CT Emergency Notification Community Notification System allows the City of Shelton to rapidly notify specific geographical areas by telephone with minimal impact on emergency services personnel.
How does CT Emergency Notification work?
In the event of an emergency, Shelton Emergency Services personnel can identify the affected area of Shelton and record a message that describes the situation and recommends the protective actions residents should take. The CT Emergency Notification system will automatically call out to all listed telephone numbers within that geographic area and deliver the recorded message. If phone lines are busy, the system will attempt to redial those numbers a predetermined number of times to make contact. If an answering machine picks up the call, the emergency message will be left on the machine.
System Features
The CT Emergency Notification system’s features make it an excellent tool for sharing information and alerting residents in the case of an emergency situation.
· It can provide an initial warning as well as specific instructions to protect at-risk citizens. Both factors are necessary for an effective warning.
· CT Emergency Notification can target specific geographic locations, warning only those people who are directly at risk.
· The system uses existing devices (telephones) to alert citizens; there is no need for people to buy a specialized warning device.
· The system can deliver text messages to TTY/TDD devices. This feature has the potential to greatly enhance our ability to warn and protect citizens who are deaf or hard of hearing.
· System administrators can add telephone numbers to the database. This can be used to add unlisted telephone numbers and cell phone numbers to the system.
Some of the many uses of the system include:
· Emergency Evacuations
· Missing Person Alerts
· Natural Disaster Alerts
· Hazardous Material Leaks
· Search and Rescue Operations
· Crime Prevention
· Wanted Person Alerts
· Neighborhood Emergency Incidents
· Special Community Notifications
· Homeland Security
The CT Emergency Notification technology provides Shelton's emergency services personnel with a state-of-the-art, public safety communication solution to better serve those who live and work in Shelton.
System Limitations
As with any system, the CT Emergency Notification system has its limitations. These can be minimized with diligent administration of the system, but they will always exist to some degree:
· The telephone number database contains only the telephone numbers listed in the White Pages for Shelton. As a result, unless manually added to the database, CT Emergency Notification will not notify people with unlisted numbers or cell phones. To minimize this, phone numbers and addresses may also be registered for use with the CT Emergency Notification system by printing, completing and sending the printed form to the Shelton Police Department.
· Cell phone numbers are not included in the database. Cell phone numbers can be manually entered into the system either as part of a notification list or linked to a specific address. If linked to a specific address, the location of the cell phone number becomes essentially fixed to that location. This could lead to the situation of a cell phone being notified when the user is mobile and well out of the affected area. Or conversely, the situation where the user is mobile, is in the affected area, but is not notified because the fixed location of the number is in an unaffected area. Please consider this when registering cell phone information for addition to the database.
· CT Emergency Notification is very effective for making notifications within a well-defined geographic area. Due to the outgoing call capacity of the system, the system becomes less effective as the geographic area gets larger. For this reason, the City of Shelton takes a systematic approach to warning, recognizing that no single application can provide warning to all citizens in all situations. The CT Emergency Notification system is an excellent enhancement to the Town’s system of sharing information with our citizens, but it does not replace Shelton’s other notification systems such as the Town of Shelton's website, www.cityofshelton.org , the local radio, local television and local newspapers.
Call Screening Features
CT Emergency Notification will not work with phone lines having call screening features. For example, if your phone line requires an individual to identify himself or herself through a recorded message before the call is excepted, the CT Emergency Notification system will not work. The system is designed to play the recorded message upon voice activation, such as a person saying "hello" or an answering machine recording.
Private Call Blocking
Moreover, the CT Emergency Notification system will work if your phone line has private call blocking. The system automatically identifies itself, allowing the phone call through.
Unpublished Phone Numbers
The CT Emergency Notification system’s initial database contains only published phone numbers. Citizens that have unlisted or unpublished phone numbers will not be called. However, if citizens have an unpublished phone number and want to be contacted in the event of an emergency incident, they should register their phone number with the Shelton Police Department. To do so, please print, complete and send the CT Emergency Notification Information Update Form to:
Shelton Police Department
85 Wheeler Street
Shelton, CT 06484
Attention: Reverse911
New Residents
Citizens that have recently moved into Shelton or changed their residential phone should register their phone number(s) as stated above.
The incorporation of the CT Emergency Notification system represents the City of Shelton’s continuing commitment to providing our citizens with the most advanced technologies available to ensure that our local public safety is as effective as possible.
Shelton Police Department
85 Wheeler Street
Shelton, CT 06484
203-924-1544