FRANKLIN
Beginning last week, the City of Franklin implemented its new emergency communication system. According to a media release issued by the City of Franklin 9-1-1 Communications Department, the CodeRED system is a high-speed notification service provided by Emergency Communications Network, based in Ormond Beach, Florida. This will serve as the backbone of the City of Franklin’s emergency planning and communications outreach and allow the City to communicate with residents and City personnel by sending telephone calls, text messages, emails, social media and CodeRed Mobile Alert app messages in an effort to effectively inform residents of emergencies to protect life and property.

“CodeRED’s robust system will provide city officials with a reliable, easy-to-use interface to quickly disseminate critical information to our residents during emergencies. We are very eager to use this technology to enhance our emergency preparedness plans,” said 9-1-1 Communication’s Manager Bruce Edwards.

He explained that the system they contracted is actually for two different things, a weather warning and CodeRed, and that the City is anticipating it will be using the system to notify residents in specific geographic locations of fires, floods, drinking water emergencies and missing children notices.

“The weather warning is automated through the National Weather Service and is address-specific and is narrowly focused on the areas of where someone lives,” Edwards said. “The main system [CodeRED] is replacing the old Reverse 9-1-1 system. It pushes any kind of notice that we feel is important.

“We alert a data base that we obtained from the phone company of all the telephone numbers in the area,” he continued. “The most important thing is you have so many people now that don’t have a house phone, but they have something through the Internet or a cell phone. We don’t capture those numbers. If people sign-up, they can sign-up for just the notices that they want. It gives them control of the notifications.”

All residents living within Franklin are encouraged to visit www.franklinpolice.org and click on the CodeRED logo to enroll additional contact information included cell phone numbers, text and email addresses. No one should assume they have been automatically added to the emergency contact database.

“This system is a lot easier to use than the one one,” Edwards added. “We have received a lot of positive feedback.”