George:

It's nice to see that the public has been officially informed of the previously "unknown" City Watch computer system. I happened to be in the 911 Center when this call came through Tuesday evening and learned about the system. This computer system allows Police, Fire, Rescue and the Emergency Services Coordinator at the 911 Center to click on a specific area of a map of the City/County, drag a circle on the computer screen to a preferred distance and initiate an entire call list.

This is important for, let's say a hazardous chemical spill at the intersection of 29 North and Rio Road. The ESC can make a recording from a cell phone into the City Watch computer and have an operator create a call list for a certain radius around the intersection. This would alert all businesses and residents about the spill and what they should do next. It can also detect a recording machine or voicemail if it does not get a live person.

One drawback is that so many people have Caller-ID and look at the number first before deciding to answer the phone. In this case, the number may be blocked - as many police numbers are, or otherwise guarded.

The time that passes between City Watch leaving a message and the time that the individual actually checks their voice mail, may be a matter of life or death. I hope that your readers will inform their neighbors about this kind of scenario and not avoid every unknown, out of area or blocked call thinking it may be a telemarketer.

Will Lyster (electronic mail, September 24, 2004)

Editor's Note: The call that we received from the City Watch System at Loper.org alerting us to the meetings of the Charlottesville Elections Task Force showed "Emergency Operations 971-6972" in the Caller ID window. For the stated purposes for which the system is generally used, I believe it is important that the Caller-ID number not be blocked or guarded. I think it is also important that it be used sparingly for clearly specific community emergencies. Otherwise, most of us will ignore it as we do other unsolicited calls.