Denver City Council’s safety and personnel committee recommended ...
Denver City Council’s safety and personnel committee recommended city approve $812,000, 5-year contract with Qwest for reverse 911 services. Service would allow city officials to phone and play recorded warnings to specific individuals, neighborhoods or blocks that faced danger…
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in emergencies such as chemical spills, storms or prisoner escapes. Service would be restricted to situations where public had to know about its danger right away and where there would be dire consequences if public wasn’t warned. City officials said Qwest’s 23-cent charge per reverse 911 call would help ensure technology was used sparingly, and only handful of officials, such as city’s police and fire chiefs, would be authorized to activate reverse 911 system. Denver 3 years ago investigated setting up its own reverse 911 system but found technology wasn’t ready yet and city didn’t have access to updated phone number lists and unlisted numbers. Qwest-provided system would be based on Qwest’s own 911 databases. City Council may make decision on reverse 911 contract next week, officials said. Other jurisdictions have looked at reverse 911 idea and some have deployed it for limited-scale applications. Vt. last week abandoned plans for a statewide reverse 911 system.