As I previously reported, The Town of Southborough has implemented a new system to replace reverse 911. Now the town is looking for your help to make sure they can contact you in an emergency.
The new “high-speed notification system”, CodeRED, allows the town to quickly notify the entire population or targeted areas. But it is only as good as the data collected.
“If your phone number is not in the database, you will not be called,” warns Neal Aspesi, Director of Operations for the Southborough Emergency Management Agency. “No one should automatically assume his or her phone number is included.”
The database should already include all listed numbers for Southborough. But it doesn’t have cell phone numbers and could have information gaps for listed numbers. That’s why SEMA is asking all residents and businesses to check the new database and directly upload any contact numbers or street addresses not included.
While everyone is encouraged to check the database, the contacts most likely to be missing are:
- Businesses
- Unlisted phone numbers
- Phone numbers changed within past year
- Cell phones
- VoIP phones
- Addresses changed within the past year
- Street addresses for people/businesses listed at P.O Boxes
Physical street addresses are an important part of the new system. Aspesi explained:
CodeRED messages are geographically based, which means street addresses are required to ensure emergency notification calls are received by the proper individuals in a given situation. The system works for cell phones too, but we need to have an associated street address to provide relevant message.
In addition to emergency information, residents can opt in for non-emergency announcements from the town. These would include information such as annual hydrant flushing dates and community events.
For more information, go to the Southborough Town Website’s CodeRED page. To register directly, click here.
If you can’t access the Internet directly, call the Town Hall (508-485-0710), Monday through Thursday (9am-4pm) and Fridays (9am-12pm), to ask how to submit your information.
CodeRed and the town assure, “All provided information is protected with the highest security and will not, under any circumstances, be shared with any party.”
To learn more general information on CodeRED, visit www.ecnetwork.com.
Updated: (7/16/13 7:00 pm): SEMA corrected their information, stating that all listed phone numbers should already be in the system. Right now the best way to know if you are already listed is by checking your voicemails or answering machine.
Around 4:00 pm this afternoon, Southborough sent a message to all phone numbers currently in the system. If you received that message, they have your number. If a phone that you want on the system wasn’t called, please follow the instructions above for registering.
Updated: (8/8/18 1:39 pm): I updated outdated links
Registered today, and received my (test) texts/calls. Now, per the instructions, I have entered in the two phone #s in my address book so I’ll know where they’re coming from. However, my text came from 410 000 031 – I’m curious if other folks also received their text from this # as well, or if perhaps it will be a different # each time, in which case I won’t bother to enter it into my address book.
I noted in their first message that they gave the wrong URL for Southborough but I am sure most people will figure that out. They said http://www.southboroughma.gov (or .com, I can’t remember) but it is really http://www.southboroughtown.com/
What we really need is Smart911. Framingham, Milford, Medford, and others have Smart911 which would allow the citizens of Southborough to provide information to police/fire when we dial 9-1-1. For example, my neighbor’s kid has severe allergies. He may call 9-1-1 but be unable to speak. With Smart911, he wouldn’t have to say a word and 9-1-1 would know about his condition. Worth looking at: http://www.smart911.com
I actually wrote to both the Police and Fire Chiefs about Smart911 earlier this year after Milford signed up but I never heard back from either department.