*****PRESS RELEASE*****

 

Township of West Milford Emergency Management Coordinator Michael Woch is pleased to announce that the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department has developed a Reverse 9 1 1 system under the direction of Sheriff Jerry Speziale.  This system utilizes state of the art telecommunications which can keep residents informed of up to the minute emergency or public advisories designed for specific areas of our community and tailored to your needs.

 

This is a free program that allows participants to choose where to receive information, in their home, business or to cellular telephone numbers. The system can even send the information to your fax machine!

 

When an emergency (or other event) occurs in your neighborhood, the Sheriff's Department Reverse-911 system will be programmed with a pre-recorded message advising call recipients of the location and nature of the problem, and giving other information to help families stay safe during the event. Once the voice recording has been made, the system is programmed to call each subscriber within the area selected by the Reverse-911 operators. The system calls each subscriber's home telephone number (plus any other optional numbers requested by the subscriber) within the affected area and relays the recorded message. 

 

Some example uses of the Reverse-911 System include road closure notifications, public information statements, severe weather warnings, evacuations, wanted or missing persons broadcasts, and so on. 

   

An additional feature of the Reverse-911 System, is the "Are You Okay?" program.  This program provides the ability to confirm the safety of special-needs citizens, such as senior citizens and domestic violence victims, at no cost to the subscribers. This function is also extremely effective to ascertain the safety of high-risk businesses, such as convenience stores.

 

 

	After subscribing to the program, the participant will receive, at a pre-determined interval  established by the subscriber, a phone call generated by the system.
	The system requires a coded "OK" response from the call recipient. Improper responses, or no response, will initiate an alarm on the Sheriff’s system and can generate notifications for up to four phone numbers and two pagers. These pre-determined numbers can be for family members, neighbors, co-workers or business-owners.
	Calling schedules can vary from day to day and time to time, based on the needs of those being called.

If you have any questions regarding the Passaic County Sheriff's Department's Reverse-911 System or “Are you Okay?” program you may call the West Milford Office of Emergency Management at 973-728-2840.

You may sign up at the Passaic County Sheriff Office's web page: 

 

http://www.pcsheriff.org/Are_You_Okay.htm

 

Or print out and mail the forms to the address provided (please note you must have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer to view and print these forms):

 

Reverse 9 1 1

 

  Are You Okay