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Half ‘Code Red' calls fail

By Carole Cloudwalker


This document was published online on Monday, November 10, 2008

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About half the people in Park County received telephone messages Saturday testing the county's new “Code Red” Enhanced 911 calling system.

The message they received concerned attending the BLM's upcoming series of public scoping meetings on development of its new Resource Management Plan.

While that in itself was not an emergency, Park County Chief Information Officer Mike Conners said the test was successful on two counts: It got out a message as allowed under the Code Red system, and it revealed that just 49 percent of county residents successfully received the calls, either in person or on their answering machines.

“I was hoping for a higher success rate,” Conners said Monday.

He will be busy this week analyzing what went wrong with the other half of the calls.

But he said the calls represented the first major trial of the new Code Red system, for which the county is paying $15,000 annually.

That fee includes some 50,000 free minutes of testing.

Conners said Saturday's test used up about 6,000 minutes while the system delivered the 55-second message.

Test minutes are on a “use it or lose it basis, and must be used by spring 2009, when the first year of the Code Red contract expires.

“We told the system to call all the phones in the county,” Conners said. “It was the first time we triggered (Code Red) system-wide.”

The system is designed to inform selected residents, or all residents, of emergencies such as an incoming weather event that could threaten them.

“The school has a similar system,” which has been used several times to inform parents of no-school days and parent-teacher conferences, he added.

The county's system was tested starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, when Code Red was told to make some 14,000 calls.

“The first run took 16 minutes,” Conners said.

If results are less than 60 percent, Code Red automatically redials every number that was not reached initially. It does not call back those numbers that were answered the first time.

“It's a pretty smart system,” Conners added. “We can activate it from any place on the planet.”

Conners feels the test was successful, since it pointed out a problem that can be repaired, once its cause is detected.

“I don't want to be fighting with these issues when the ‘Big One' comes,” he said.

Conners added that the county's blog (parkcountywy.blogspot.com) drew one comment objecting to use of the Code Red system to announce the meetings.

“Why was the Red Alert system used to broadcast this BLM RMP project? That system is supposed to be for bona fide emergencies. Is the Red Alert system turning into some political infommercial tool?” a blogger who signed “Anonymous” commented.

In addition, Conners said the law enforcement dispatch center received one complaint on the same issue.

Otherwise, those who received the Code Red calls seemed generally pleased with the message and the way the system worked for them, he said.

Referring to Code Red regulations, Conners said “anything is allowed,” and the county can use the system for non-emergency messages if it so desires.

“The only rule is you have to mention Code Red,” he added.

Saturday's message was termed “informational” so no one should have mistaken it for an emergency message, he added.

“A couple of people felt (the message) was politically motivated,” Conners added.

He disagreed.

“If it had been political, I'd have been hesitant,” he said. “This was not pushing an agenda,” but merely informing the public about upcoming meetings.

(Carole Cloudwalker can be reached at carole@codyenterprise.com.)
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Reader Comments

Bobbie wrote on Nov 12, 2008 12:24 PM:

" This was a terrible use of an emergency system! Not only was the use ridiculous, the way the call was identified did not make the receiver immediately aware that it was a reverse 911 call. The call should have identified itself as a "Reverse 911 Code Red"--get that 'reverse 911' in at the beginning! The call could have also identified itself as a 'TEST', in the same manner the radio and TV broadcasters do from time to time.

Mr Conners states in the article above that the system is "designed to inform selected residents, or all residents, of emergencies such as an incoming weather event that could threaten them." Using this system to notify residents of some meeting really destroys it's value as an emergency management tool. Shame on you!

The system may be 'smart', but it is only as 'smart' as those who utilize it. "

WT wrote on Nov 12, 2008 10:08 AM:

" The boy who cried wolf...What happens if the Code Red system is continued to be used for "public meetings" and people become "immune" or blase to the calls. When a TRUE emergency strikes, I wouldn't be surpised if the majority of Code Red call receipients just hang up before the actual emergency message is delivered...thinking "oh, it's just another meeting". Common sense...it's not common anymore. "

Dewd wrote on Nov 11, 2008 9:55 AM:

" Dunno about you , but when I get a Robo-Call , I hang up on it. All of them. I hate crap calls. And there have been a HUGE number of them recently. The biggest offendor by far were various factions of the Republican Party, including the Wyoming GOP. Next come companies in Florida who offer credit card and debt services ( I Have none of either and am on the Federal No-Call List, but they continue to illegally call anyway ). Finally there are more localized Robo Calls , from car dealers and other services. I'm sorry to say it, but if Park County or Cody PD used a Code Red Reverse 911 call to inform me I had terrorist bombers in my neighborhood, I am already conditioned to hang up on the first words as an unsolicited crap call. That is precisely why I never heard the mention that Saturday's call was " informational" and not "political " , although I could debate that as well. This initial test of Park County's Code Red system could've been handled a whole lot better. "

CG wrote on Nov 10, 2008 4:38 PM:

" How can informing the public about a public meeting be political? Come on people, grow up. "

 

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