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Emergency Installment

Because of the recent sniper attacks in Prince George's County, MD, the WARN system was rolled out ahead of schedule.

NASHVILLE - As a the result of recent sniper attacks in Prince George's County, MD, and the surrounding D.C. area, Wide Area Rapid Notification (WARN) Calling made an early install of its notification system for the Prince George's County Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) for immediate use. The WARN. Calling installation date for the system had originally been scheduled for mid-November.

Because of the severity of the emergency, WARN management made an advance install of the WARN Calling technology, to assist Prince George's County OEP in their communication capabilities between government agencies and personnel, as a result of the attacks. Prince George's County coordinated a presentation and basic training on WARN Calling for 16 county officials, including employees of the police, fire and public works departments, which was completed in two hours.

"I feel extremely safe in saying, it was unanimous among our group that this system is a very effective communication tool for Prince George's County," said Reggie Parks, Director of Prince George's Office of Emergency Preparedness.

WARN Calling is a high-speed data and calling management application, and is configured in this case for the county to call approximately 6,000 phone devices every minute, including calls to business, cellular, mobile, home, and office numbers. With the ability to call out to thousands of mobile and cellular phones instantly, county officials hope to cut down the response time normally required to inform and move large groups of emergency or county personnel toward an event.

The WARN technology was originally contracted by Prince George's County Department of Environmental Resources and the County Office of Emergency Preparedness in a joint effort to improve such services as flood notification, weather-related announcements, or emergency event calling and response.

Since the sniper attacks, WARN Calling has now been presented for additional use by other agencies within Prince George's County. The system allows for centralized management of all county emergency and administrative phone data to facilitate ease and speed of communication. The system may also be used affordably for other uses such as sexual offender notification, "Amber"-style alerts, chemical spills, and other emergency-related needs. - Jim McKay, justice editor