Cactus Village Community

“CITY WATCH” By CAO Karen Freund

Jul 08, 2003

Your phone rings. You answer. An automated voice says, ?“This is an important message from the Phoenix Police Department. Please press any key on your telephone keypad to continue?”.

What is this, you ask yourself?! This is the new City Watch system which should be up and running in a few months. The program is designed to quickly make phone calls to either a prearranged set of phone numbers or to a geographical location. The phone message may give you important information about a missing child, an armed robbery suspect hiding in your neighborhood, or it could just be reminding you about an upcoming meeting! It can also call back anyone it previously called to inform you the lost child or armed robbery suspect was located.

A system user (Commander, Lt., Sgt., etc.) will determine who needs to be called and what the message will say. They may have a prearranged list of group members and use the City Watch system to simply notify the group of a change in meeting date or location. Or, the system user may be dealing with a child who wandered away from his or her home. They can than use a city map which already been entered into the computer and mark a ?‘/2 mile radius around the missing child?’s home.

The City Watch system will immediately begin calling all the residents in that area with a recorded message giving the child?’s description and location last seen. This may assist the Police Department in locating the child quicker by having an entire neighborhood of ?‘eyes and ears?’ available!

So, the next time your phone rings and starts off with a recorded message, don?’t hang up! It could be an important call from the Phoenix Police Dept?…☺