Travis County Commissioners Court
October 20, 2009,
Item 4
4.
receive briefing from staff regarding the cell phone registration program for the emergency notification system.
>> good morning, mete baldwin, margin management coordinator for Travis County.
to my right stacy
>> [indiscernible] assistants emergency coordinator for Travis County.
tyler hunt program security grants program manager and works with the hazmat units.
i wanted to bring them up to make sure at some point in time you do see them, get to know who they are.
right now we do want to provide you with a quick briefing of a new program that we participate in throughout the entire county.
through the capital area planning council of governments, Travis County participates in the emergency notification system that is basically a reverse 911 system.
in the events of public threat of health or property, those numbers listed in the 911 database, we can actually turn around and call them back with a recorded message about whatever the threat is.
however, with the advent of so many people dropping that "land line" and moving to strictly cell phones, some people have gone to the internet, voice over internet protocol.
if those providers participate in the 911 database, then they were a part of it.
but for many people who dropped everything and gone to cell phone, we had no way to warn them, provide any kind of warning.
so this program through capcog actually does that.
where a person can register their cell phone to a geographical location.
up to five geographical locations.
and if there is a public safety warning for that geographical location, it will call the cell phone and provide that information.
so it is strictly voluntary.
but we feel like this is a -- an added value to our current system because now this allows us to reach a lot more people out there.
for those who are listening and I will provide this to our intranet and have it posted for county employees to be able to get to, but the -- we would go to http, no www in their -- wireless.capcog.org.
so it's basically wireless.capcog.org.
for those people that may not have access to internet, they can still register their cell phone to a geographical location.
they can do that by calling on that cell phone, the cell phone they want to register, to 916-6035.
that's the capcog homeland security process.
>> 916-6035.
they can help register that cell phone.
>> okay.
>> like I said, we have participated in emergency notification system over the years.
it is an excellent warning tool and people, questions that a lot of people ask, will my phone number be safe, yes, it is in that 911 database, only accessible by public safety officials needing to get out a warning.
so --
>> so what kind of event would trigger such an emergency.
>> flooding, fire.
the last -- the last one I recall that we particularly were involved with using it was a couple of years ago when the chlorine truck came up 290 and stopped and started leaking, then we actually drew the polygon on the map and said call everyone in this neighborhood and tell them shelter in place, shot off everything, or if you evacuate take this route.
so any type of information.
it has been used throughout the 10 county area even to like issue boil water notices on line breaks or low water pressure, so any of those types of things that could threaten life and/or property.
>> okay.
>> okay.
>> yes, sir?
>> can you tell me -- is there a telephone number, you may have mentioned it, I had to step off the dais for a second --
>> yes, sir, I gave it out several times, let me give it to you again.
916-6035.
then your backup, that's located at the very bottom of your first page.
>> when -- the question that I was going to ask what about -- there's -- there's already an existing program for persons that have land lines.
i was trying to get -- there maybe someone out there who may not -- want to participate in the land line situation program, what is the telephone number for them to participate in that program.
>> if they have a land line, then they need to call their provider, whoever that is, and ask that provider do you participate in the 911 database.
>> okay.
>> because the 911 database is fed by the different providers.
all of these, so they need -- that's where we get into trouble with some of this internet phone service and everything until most of them started coming on board and started providing that information into it.
but if they want to be sure about if their provider is -- is participating, then they need to contact their representative and say is -- is xyz company participating in the 911 database program.
>> okay.
>> all right, sir.
>> thank you.
>> you're welcome.
>> any other questions, comments?
>> move approval.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you, sir.
>> no action required.
>> no action required.
>> no action.
>> thank y'all.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:40 PM
