Crisis averted

The skies are dark and the air is eerily still. You’re driving down a deserted country road, heading due north. You’re pushing buttons, but the radio comes in patchy, at best. Suddenly your Smartphone lights up. You’ve received an alert that indicates a tornado has touched down about forty miles ahead. A quick glace reveals a weather map with the storm’s direction and a warning from the National Weather Service. You immediately hit the brakes and change course, avoiding the tornado’s path rather than driving into its eye.

When disaster looms, public safety officials can find it challenging to disseminate pertinent information to the public in a timely manner. Luckily, new technology is allowing us to answer a lot of “What ifs”. What if commuters traveling towards I-35W in Minneapolis on August 1, 2007 were able to change routes and avoid the bridge collapse that claimed the lives of thirteen people? On April 4, 2012 a gunman went on a shooting rampage at Oikos University, an Oakland, Calif. Six students and a receptionist were killed. What if those walking the campus that day had somehow received a real-time notification telling them not only of the active shooter, but also his whereabouts, his description, and up-to-the-minute instructions? What if we were given an extra opportunity to avoid danger? Thanks to new software, including a large rumble in the field of smartphone technology, we may be able to access warnings like these and much more.

Planning for the unknown

The island of Key West in the Straits of Florida is about four miles long and two miles wide. The popular vacation hot spot is a mere 90 nautical miles to Havana, Cuba. Its latitude/longitude hangs in the 83/24 range, which means they are within just several degrees of the subtropics. Forty-two bridges connect Key West to the cluster of inland states. Once a fairly self-sufficient region with its own power generation, technological updates of the past twenty years have actually made the territory more dependent on the rest of the US for things like water and power.

“If a bridge goes out, then we have to really scramble to get our contingencies ready to go,” says Craig Marson, Key West’s emergency management director. Because of the area’s location, population and exposure to ripping hurricanes, cooperation is essential to managing a thorough disaster response and implementing a successful evacuation. City planners and public safety personnel in the region meet constantly to draw and re-draw plans, as well as collaborate with neighboring organizations. “We have a lot of cooperative work, whether it’s through a handshake, or establishing memorandums of understanding or memorandums of agreement with other partners,” says Marson, “Because we can become so potentially isolated, we rely on each other very heavily to develop plans and active plans for emergency response.”

Marson, along with area police, fire and EMS teams recently completed a drill for a potential off-shore or near-shore oil spill, similar to what might happen to the deep water horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Also in attendance were NOAA, the National Marine Sanctuary, the Interior Department, Army Corp. of Engineers, the EPA, Weather Service, Coastguard, etc.

In the event a hurricane hits or a bridge closes, Marson says they rely heavily on the city’s website and a cable television provider to get information to the public. They also have a contract with their private provider (CodeRED ECN Emergency Communication Network) that gives city employees three methods of contact: a landline phone, a cell phone and text messaging. They’ve recently added a web-based component where employees can receive email notifications, as well. The city employs approximately 400 to 600 people. With hurricane season picking up in June/July, Marson says they anticipate using the new program quite a bit in emergency hurricane drills and even in preparation for a number of the region’s famous entertainment draws like Fantasy Fest in October.

Official alerts to local phones

Another way to get the message out is to contact citizens directly. The company Ping4, now in its second year, has developed software to do just that. The intuitive program can notify people within a very specific geographic range of an immediate, potentially threatening situation using rich media including maps, video, audio and images to provide area phones with very detailed and descriptive information. The product is unique in that it can “wake up” or “ping” citizens’ phones. Also, police do not need to know anything about these phone carriers, or even where they are, exactly, in order to issue an alert.

“It’s completely anonymous, [which] a lot of people like … because they don’t want to give their phone number or their email to the police,” says Jim Bender, Ping4’s CEO. Bender adds it’s especially valuable in communities with transient populations, like vacation or coastal communities, because there, “[police] really have no idea who’s visiting their town, and yet they’ve got an obligation to protect everybody.”

Imagine if emergency managers had the ability to use Ping4 during Japan’s tsunami last February. Public officials with access to the software might have cordoned off the precise coordinates of the storm and sent the map, along with continual updates, to iPhone and Android users in that region.

“Once the tsunami hit, the power grids [were] down and all the roads [were] destroyed,” says Bender. “But [emergency managers] could communicate with people and say, ‘If you need a place to sleep you can go here; if you need warm clothing or food or water, go there. And if you need medicine, here’s where you go.

“Also, In the case of the Japanese disaster, a lot of people were downwind of these nuclear reactors and they had no way of knowing that they were in danger, and the police had no other way to contact them. With this they could have drawn a box and said, if you’re … downwind of an unstable nuclear reactor you must go north immediately.”

The technology provides a way to communicate when traditional communication systems go down. Says Bender, “[When] all else fails and there’s no radio, no TV, no nothing … there’s no newspaper tomorrow, this is a way that you can communicate with people, and help keep them safe.”

Now imagine a campus shooter scenario, only campus personnel, students, and area civilians are all receiving precise updates on where the shooter is and what’s happening, minute by minute. Having this type of information on-hand can answer a lot of anxious questions, leaving police and SWAT teams to better focus their attention on the situation at hand. It might also keep more people out of harm’s way.

Crack team crime solvers

New technology that not only helps solve crime, but helps prevent crime, too, is a sound investment according to Det. Cpt. Nick Willard of the Manchester Police Department. His department is currently using Ping4 to help stop a rash of burglaries in a popular shopping area, and he sees great potential in using it for missing children cases, as well.

“We have a minor-league ballpark and we also have a minor league hockey team in our civic center. If people have this app on their phone they can help us locate, say, a missing seven-year-old, which happens fairly often at these games where the parent takes the child to the bathroom, they turn around and the child’s gone. And then they come over to the officer and report that their child’s missing,” says Willard. Police can ‘ping’ the child’s description and put a geo fence around the stadium. People receiving the message can contact detectives via cell phone, or simply contact the department.

“Instead of the three officers who typically work the Fisher Cats baseball game looking for this child, you have potentially 6,000 fans that are also in the stadium, assuming that they have the app downloaded on their phone,” says Willard.

Last year 2,000 children were reported missing in the United States on an average day, according to the National Center for Missing and Abused Children, but only 167 Amber Alerts were issued. “One of the problems with Amber Alerts is that it can be difficult to get one, and by the time someone qualifies the child can be long-gone and far away,” says Bender.

Manchester police use both Ping4 for alerts specific to a general area, and Nixle for email notifications. In burglary cases detectives can download surveillance video from a local robbery and get it out to the public without having to wait for the news cycle and then becoming inundated with phone calls. Citizens must download the free app onto their phone. Willard says they encourage people to download the app any time the department does community policing, or holds neighborhood watch groups and meetings.

Emergency cooperation saves

One system of notification does not nullify another, if both are effective in keeping citizens out of harm’s way. Unlike just five years ago when a timely radio announcement was the only thing that might keep a road commuter from barreling towards a downed bridge, there now exist other means to help us side-step dangerous obstacles and, in some cases, even help solve crimes. Fast, detailed, real-time alerts for citizens and public safety can only help to increase our chances of survival next time the unthinkable happens.