Community Notification System

Most North Aurora residents know they can call 9-1-1 to get assistance in the event of a police, fire or medical emergency. With the Reverse 911 system, North Aurora 's emergency services personnel can also notify residents and businesses about a potential emergency circumstance.

The Reverse 911 Community Notification System allows the Village of North Aurora to rapidly notify specific geographical areas by telephone with minimal impact on emergency services personnel.

How does Reverse 911 work?

In the event of an emergency, North Aurora's emergency services personnel can identify the affected area of North Aurora and record a message that describes the situation and recommends the protective actions residents should take. The Reverse 911 system will automatically call out to all listed telephone numbers within that geographic area and deliver the recorded message. If phone lines are busy, the system will attempt to redial those numbers a predetermined number of times to make contact. If an answering machine picks up the call, the emergency message will be left on the machine.

System Features

The Reverse 911 system's features make it an excellent tool for sharing information and alerting residents in the case of an emergency situation.

• It can provide an initial warning as well as specific instructions to protect at-risk citizens. Both factors are necessary for an effective warning.
• Reverse 911 can target specific geographic locations, warning only those people who are directly at risk.
• The system uses existing devices (telephones) to alert citizens; there is no need for people to buy a specialized warning device.
• The system can deliver text messages to TTY/TDD devices. This feature has the potential to greatly enhance our ability to warn and protect citizens who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• System administrators can add telephone numbers to the database. This can be used to add unlisted telephone numbers and cell phone numbers to the system.

Some of the many uses of the system include:

• Emergency Evacuations
• Missing Person Alerts
• Natural Disaster Alerts
• Hazardous Material Leaks
• Search and Rescue Operations
• Crime Prevention
• Wanted Person Alerts
• Neighborhood Emergency Incidents
• Special Community Notifications
• Homeland Security

The REVERSE 911 technology provides North Aurora's emergency services personnel with a state-of-the-art, public safety communication solution to better serve those who live and work in North Aurora .

System Limitations

As with any system, the Reverse 911 system has its limitations. These can be minimized with diligent administration of the system, but they will always exist to some degree:

The telephone number database contains only the telephone numbers listed in the telephone book for the Village of North Aurora . As a result, unless manually added to the database, Reverse 911 will not notify people with unlisted numbers, cell phones, or new resident numbers. To minimize this, phone numbers and addresses may also be registered for use with the Reverse 911 system by completing the on-line registration form or printing, completing and sending the printed formto the Village of North Aurora (address information below).

Cell phone numbers are not included in the database. Cell phone numbers can be manually entered into the system either as part of a notification list or linked to a specific address. If linked to a specific address, the location of the cell phone number becomes essentially fixed to that location. This could lead to the situation of a cell phone being notified when the user is mobile and well out of the affected area. Or conversely, the situation where the user is mobile, is in the affected area, but is not notified because the fixed location of the number is in an unaffected area. Please consider this when registering cell phone information for addition to the database.

Reverse 911 is very effective for making notifications within a well-defined geographic area. Due to the outgoing call capacity of the system, the system becomes less effective as the geographic area gets larger. For this reason, the Village of North Aurora takes a systematic approach to warning, and recognizes that no single application can provide warning to all residents in all situations. The Reverse 911 system is an excellent enhancement to the Village's system of sharing information with our citizens, but it does not replace North Aurora's other notification systems such as the Village of North Aurora's website, www.vil.north-aurora.il.us, local news channels, local radio and local newspapers.

Call Screening Features

Reverse 911 will not work with phone lines having call screening features. For example, if your phone line requires an individual to identify himself or herself through a recorded message before the call is accepted, the Reverse 911 system will not work. The system is designed to play the recorded message upon voice activation, such as a person saying "hello" or an answering machine recording.

Private Call Blocking

Moreover, the Reverse 911 system will work if your phone line has private call blocking. The system automatically identifies itself, allowing the phone call through.

Unpublished Phone Numbers

The Reverse 911 system's initial database contains only published phone numbers. Residents that have unlisted or unpublished phone numbers will not be called. However, if citizens have an unpublished phone number and want to be contacted in the event of an emergency incident, they should register their phone number with the Village of North Aurora. To do so, please complete the on-line registration form, or please print, completeand send the Reverse 911 Information Update Form to:

Emergency Management - Reverse 911
Attention: Wes Kornowske
Village of North Aurora
25 E. State St.
North Aurora, IL 60542

New Residents

Citizens that have recently moved into North Aurora or changed their residential phone should register their phone number(s) as stated above.

The incorporation of the REVERSE 911 system represents the Village of North Aurora 's continuing commitment to providing our residents with the most advanced technologies available to ensure that our local public safety is as effective as possible.