A lack of funding could force officials to hang-up on Maricopa County’s reverse 911 system by July.
The system, which calls people with a recorded message to alert them of nearby emergencies, was used 28 times in 2007, primarily to locate missing people, evacuate neighborhoods and notify residents of a barricade situation close by, officials said.
A $2.5 million grant used to pay for monthly maintenance fees ended this month. The Arizona Department of Administration agreed to continue funding it through July 1.
”If we can’t come up with a solution, we would be missing out on our ability to notify people of extremely dangerous situations,” said Mesa Fire Chief Harry Beck.
”We’re going to be limited in the ability to protect people’s lives.”
Officer Matt Barnett, a Glendale police spokesman, said his agency used reverse 911 a handful of times last year, once to help locate a juvenile runaway.
Twenty-six emergency dispatch centers across metro Phoenix have been able to access the system since it began in January 2004.
Qwest charges more than $500,000 annually to maintain the system, and individual agencies pay several thousand dollars in fees to activate a message.
Officials have tried to secure permanent funding since its inception, but Beck said the Legislature has been reluctant to fund it because it’s used only in Maricopa County.
Without reverse 911, fire department officials say they would have to resort to other means like television and radio media distribution to get the word out about hazardous or life or death situations.
“I guess you could drive trucks along streets and use megaphones, knock on doors, which is extremely time-consuming and requires a lot of resources that could be used to mitigate the situation,” said Steve Kreis, Phoenix fire executive assistant chief over operations.
“I don’t know of any other way that we could make it large-scale.” ?