If there is an emergency in an area, government agencies have to be able to notify the residents of the area quickly. The problem is that many of the citizens in several cities no longer have land lines for their telephone service. This leads to the dilemma that government is faced with today.
One of the problems that was actually seen recently took place in Battle Ground. A small area was affected by what was considered to be a possibly dangerous situation. So, it was necessary to alert the people in the immediate area. Rather than worry an entire city, the Clark Regional Emergency Service Agency decided that a reverse 911 call needed to be made to the area’s residents. Unfortunately, the amount of people that have land lines in the area was so few that there was a very limited amount of people that could be reached.
Anyone that has some other form of communication such as a cell phone, a smart phone, or computer phone lines can register to have notification sent to them, but that is rarely done. So, that leaves the problem of how can government agencies get in touch with people in an emergency situation.
In the works is a system that will send messages to cell phones as they are traveling through an area that has potential data to convey. That means that there is a bit of our privacy that is being threatened by the proposed system. So what is the greater good in this specific situation? Creating a system that may infringe on our privacy or taking the risk of not being informed of any emergencies?
Residents need to be aware of the happenings in their area. Reverse Cell Phone registration is highly recommended and you register your cell phone to receive alerts at http://cresa911.org/be-informed/ to be aware of what is going on around you.
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