Police To Do Missing Child Alerts By Phone
Law enforcement officials in Albuquerque, N.M., plan to use telemarketing technology to alert citizens when a child or a person with Alzheimer’s disease is missing. The telephone calls will be placed to neighborhoods where the person is missing, and police say the technology could also be used to alert residents of a disaster or escaped fugitive.
The technology, which is free to law enforcement agencies, is distributed through grants and private money and is currently used in three dozen states. The technology, described by Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz as the same “technology that telemarketers have been using for years,” is capable of placing up to 1,000 phone calls per minute to listed residents and businesses within a specified geographic radius.
When a person receives the call, they hear an automated voice informing them that this is an urgent message from the police, along with a description of the missing individual and a phone number to call.
Officers set the automated call in motion by placing a toll-free phone call to the nonprofit company that runs the service, where they can speak directly to a company representative. Residents with unlisted numbers can visit a Web site to register for the service.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Albuquerque Journal (04/27/06) P. C1; Wilham, T.J.
