Oh, Lord...What is Sherriff Joe up to now?

"If you have replaced your land line phone with cell service, starting next month you can register your cell phone number to your home address"

And who wouldn't be eager to register their cell phone number with the cops?

I think the headline is referring to a situation in the movie Minority Report.

instead listen so that you can recognize an emergency message in the future.

start sending me messages from the future and I'll stay on the line

The_Sponge

/Not sure how many pool boys are actually working in Spokane this time of year.


Does ANYONE work in Spokane?

Quintessence: And who wouldn't be eager to register their cell phone number with the cops?

This right there. Every time the po-lice start in with these little extra public services it's a good time to be suspicious.

Thanks for a heads up subby.

as a seasonal pool boy, this headline did not amuse me subby.
TFA made everything ok again

"Whaaaaat? No I don't want to buy a chemical spill! Can you hear me? Are you from the cable company? Oh, whatever...no thank you!" [tries to hang up but leaves phone off the hook for days]

Quintessence

And who wouldn't be eager to register their cell phone number with the cops?


I guess the only way to test that would be...

1) Buy TracFone and register it to your neighbor's address

2) Make threatening phone call to someone important

3) Observe to see if/when the police respond

4) Allow phone to DIAF


Don't do this.

During the flood last spring, here in Fargo, a reverse 911 system was used to seek volunteers when a dike breach was found. It was once used when a dike downtown was cracking and over 400 people showed up in less than 15 minutes. So it is useful in some cases.

ChaoticV: dike downtown was cracking

I'm sure gorgor has a pic for that

el wharrrgarblo: Knucklepopper: Quintessence: And who wouldn't be eager to register their cell phone number with the cops?

This right there. Every time the po-lice start in with these little extra public services it's a good time to be suspicious.

This. Even if it's totally honest, the path to hell is always paved with good intentions.

Union workers?

I've already had a reverse 911 call. Twice actually. One was to tell me not to go in my back yard for an hour while they checked a potential bomb at the sheriff station just over my backyard fence. The second time was just a couple of days ago to tell me not to call into 911 because they already knew about the bozo construction crew who accidentally dug up a gas main down the street. The second was a recorded call.

The headline is silly because if you were really cleaning up with the pool boy, you wouldn't answer the phone.

But since it's a joke, I'm OK with that. +1

R-911 is a useful technology depending on the situation. If the community is one that is subject to unpredictable and potentially devastating disasters (tsunami, flooding, major industrial chemical leaks, etc.) then it can be worth having a way to tell a neighborhood to GTFO in as many ways as possible in a short amount of time.

Unfortunately the clever vendors have been selling this thing to folks right and left, and once you've bought it you start looking for reasons to use it. I've heard of cities using this to inform residents of pickup-days for recycling or special meetings of the city council. It can really damage pubilc perception of emergency management when used inappropriately, but can be a lifesaver when used right.

As long as the caller has a hot, sexy voice and wants me to bork her, I'm good. Otherwise, my Remington and I have everything under..HEY who the fark is in my kitch... BLAM BLAM BLAM...OK now where was I?

cryinoutloud: The headline is silly because if you were really cleaning up with the pool boy, you wouldn't answer the phone.

But since it's a joke, I'm OK with that. +1

Yep

ChaoticV: During the flood last spring, here in Fargo, a reverse 911 system was used to seek volunteers when a dike breach was found. It was once used when a dike downtown was cracking and over 400 people showed up in less than 15 minutes. So it is useful in some cases.

You said dike twice

FTFA: "The city is testing its new reverse 911 system[...]

It will be nice to see the Twin Towers standing again.

Spokane = beautiful. Sorry, but I've spent too much time there to trash talk it. Heaven takes on some form of Spokane, WA during summer.

pudding7: I was hoping the headline was from a real story.

Me too. Sigh.

The real incentive behind this is because of the H5N1 Avian flu, which is still a huge threat to the US.

The idea is that if people buttoned up inside their homes and apartments during a major, killer epidemic, then a city could systematically call everyone in the city to ask if they needed help, or body and dead animal recovery, or to find out if they had taken off leaving their home empty. This would optimize emergency services.

They could leave messages, provide information, provide a person to talk to if needed, etc. Also, programs could be set up so that people could do essential shopping off peak hours, get non-emergency medical help and pharmaceuticals, and who knows what all else.

Fairly inexpensive to set up a phone bank, and could save a lot of lives while reducing panic.

Have installed a similar system here. Used by the Government to warn about bushfires. It SMS's all phones in a cell area with the GTFO message, as wellas ringing all land lines in the area.

Came in afte the Black Saturday fires this year. got used today for sections of my state.

//Dreading the rest of the bushfire season
//Already packed my valuables in boot of car

"Hello, this is the Sheriff's office. Your husbandWife is about to come home drunkhigh off Oxycodone with a gun and catch your Family values ass with the pool boy. Just, you know, FYI."
Fixed

Farker T: FTFA: "The city is testing its new reverse 911 system[...]

It will be nice to see the Twin Towers standing again.

I don't know about all those people coming back though. some of their spouses have probably remarried. Awkward.

cryinoutloud: Farker T: FTFA: "The city is testing its new reverse 911 system[...]

It will be nice to see the Twin Towers standing again.

I don't know about all those people coming back though. some of their spouses have probably remarried. Awkward.

I have thi mental image of the jumpers, flying from the ground back to their windows...

\\Yes Iknow, can I have a first class st at least

The_Sponge: pudding7: I was hoping the headline was from a real story.


Same here.

/Not sure how many pool boys are actually working in Spokane this time of year.

All of them.

Just not in swimming pools.

Hook.
Line.
Sinker.


*sigh*

Theaetetus: "Spokane County Commissioner Mark Richards hopes you don't hang up thinking it's someone trying to sell you something and instead listen so that you can recognize an emergency message in the future."

Unlikely.

This. And I hang up as soon as I hear that it's a recording.

/even though I only have a cell phone I still get that crap
//can't imagine having a land line anymore; it's been years and it was bad even back then
///yes, even with the do not call list
////you know how to get me to stop doing that? Just farking outlaw telemarketing. Done.

Welcome to 2004.
At least that's how long ago our city has been doing it.

That's why most citizens have cell phones and/or voicemail nowadays.

tmyk

/it is was it is
//that's what all the retards say nowadays.
/// and nowadays.

TheSignPost:
Fark anti-cop threads are a perfect example. For no good reason at all, a bunch of pathetic pimpled internet tough guys whine about how the cops are all, ALL, worthless pigs. Without one effort on their part to make anyone else's life better, or to simply live their own life according to basic do-unto-others principles.

It's sad, but it's never surprising.

Cop-haters will bring about Big Brother.

Definitely going to happen.

Huh? I lean toward the anti-cop side just because I see that COPS can't behave. Sure, there's some good ones, but there's enough that act just like you accuse "citizens" of doing to make me fear them rather than welcome their presence. And there's no cops to arrest cops when they misbehave either - that's what makes it scary.

You don't know me. You don't know what I do and don't do, or how I interact with people, so easy on the implication that I'm somehow a selfish scofflaw, there.

/hell, just watch one DRIVE and you'll see what I mean.
//two sets of rules. One for us, one for them.

AlmightyFjord: , Sheriff calls YOU!

Apparently, Soviet Russia also hides in shadow like rest of KGB. Huh.

Create an identifiable opening and restrict any company calling into the area from using a similar, mistakable greeting, and this might work. Please have the automated voice say, "911 Emergency Reverse System" or similar immediately, otherwise I and everyone else will hang the phone upon hearing, "This is an..." because my next assumption is the message is from "my" "bank" and "important". Or perhaps the factory warranty on my 1996 Mustang is about to expire; warranties last 13 years, right?

It had better come up on my caller ID. I just had a bunch of hassle when a major credit card company tried to legitimatley call me with some "unknown name" number. Imagine what will happen if people don't even pick up.

Quintessence: "If you have replaced your land line phone with cell service, starting next month you can register your cell phone number to your home address"

And who wouldn't be eager to register their cell phone number with the cops?

I'd check your assumption list. I think the police/EMS already know your cell phone number. The last two times that I've called 911, they not only knew my name (despite caller ID being blocked from one of the phones that I used), but the numbers of the other three cell phones that I had (my second one, Mrs. Gough's, and our daughter's). Before you blame one provider for ratting me out, those phones were with four different providers. I think the point with the article is that you can register a cell phone number as being the primary contact number for a residence.

cryinoutloud: Farker T: FTFA: "The city is testing its new reverse 911 system[...]

It will be nice to see the Twin Towers standing again.

I don't know about all those people coming back though. some of their spouses have probably remarried. Awkward.

Bureaucrats. They never consider the zombie factor.

As an emergency responder for my city, I'm registered in the reverse 911 directory so I know if I'm needed for an emergency