Public safety agencies in the Maricopa County, Ariz., region have begun using an automated telephone dialing system to notify residents of emergencies. The Community Emergency Notification System (CENS) can place thousands of calls to land-line phones in minutes, alerting residents throughout the 10,000-square-mile area to such urgent matters as endangered children, evacuations or criminal suspects at large.

The CENS was created in response to a legal settlement between the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and a Mesa, Ariz.-based air-bag manufacturer that admitted to illegally dumping hazardous chemicals in the mid-1990s. As part of the settlement, ADEQ set aside $2.5 million to implement an emergency notification system for the region. In January 2003, ADEQ chose a system proposed by the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) that would allow all 26 cities in the region to send specific telephone messages to residents.

To deploy the system, MAG contracted with Denver-based Qwest to use its Emergency Preparedness Network. The network consists of the company's 911 database, which includes unlisted phone numbers and is updated daily as residents move or get new numbers, and Web-based software that allows public safety agencies to record messages and send them to residents. Qwest contracts with Longmont, Colo.-based Intrado for the software, called Intellicast Target Notification. The Phoenix Fire Department, which dispatches firefighters for 20 area departments, manages the system.

When an emergency occurs in the region, a dispatcher in the responding 911 center can access the system to record messages in English and Spanish that describe the emergency and give instructions that residents and businesses can follow to protect themselves. To deliver the messages, dispatchers visit a secure Web site, where they use a map of the region to select the area they want to reach. Then, the dispatcher uses the Web site to push the messages out over the telephone network at a minimum speed of 500 calls a minute.

MAG customized the system to leave messages on residents' answering machines if they do not answer the phone and to call back phone numbers that are busy or do not respond. The system also sends text versions of the messages to phones equipped with telecommunication devices for the deaf. Currently, the system cannot target messages to residents' cell phones, but MAG officials are confident that the majority of the region's residents have land-line phones. “Part of our public awareness campaign is to make sure [residents know] if they choose to only get a cell phone for their home service, they will be excluded from this product,” says Liz Hunt, program manager for the Phoenix Fire Department.

MAG organized a group of stakeholders to set guidelines for when the system can be used and for what types of events. Each public safety agency in the region then created its own policies for using the system based on the stakeholders' guidelines. Currently, MAG limits the use of the system for law enforcement and fire emergencies, but officials expect to expand the list to include utility emergencies and floods. The system also has a call-list feature that eventually could send emergency alerts to parents of students in area schools.

The Phoenix Fire Department began using the system in October, and, by January, it had trained the other 911 centers in the region to use the technology. In November, a chlorine gas leak prompted the department to use the system to tell 2,270 residents and businesses in Glendale and Phoenix to evacuate and seek shelter at a nearby municipal baseball stadium. Residents were held at the stadium for about one hour following the leak, and no one died as a result of the chemical leak. “Overall, we thought it was successful because we did have people evacuate, and we were able to save lives because of it,” Hunt says.