When an alarm is activated or generated, local authorities and building occupants with the highest administrative levels (management, principals, security, maintenance, etc.) are immediately notified of the incident via text, email, fax and/or voice messaging. The notification will identify the type of emergency that happened and provide a link to a floor plan showing where the incident occurred in the facility. That message also contains links to get driving directions to the facility (for police response) and access to the secure Internet portal from which two-way, mass-communication is facilitated. Others groups in the building will be notified to “lockdown” or follow a protocol based on the situation.
Because building occupants are able to reply to the messages they receive — by text or email — they can provide onsite intelligence that the police can use to shape their response. Those responses can indicate where there are injuries or even photographs that would help identify the perpetrators or let police know how many perpetrators they are dealing with when they arrive. Ongoing two-way communication between the contact groups can be maintained throughout the incident until the “all clear” signal is given. The same two-way communication capabilities are also available for municipalities, but instead of an alarm-system trigger to initiate the mass-communication system, a municipal leader would generate the event message from the secure online portal.
Whether it is the local police or campus security, it is from the Incident Command and Communication portal that instructions for building occupants can be sent. Recipients can reply to the messages by email or text to provide onsite intelligence. It is this two-way communication that sets our system apart from any other. Incident Commanders are also given access to on-site video feeds to track perpetrators and visually assess the situation in real time.
Traditional notification of an emergency event in a building usually takes place with visual (strobe) and audio (horn/speaker) indicators while a central station operator notifies the 911 dispatch center via telephone contact. That’s the end of the dialogue. A conversation, in comparison, is two-way exchange of information. That’s exactly what’s needed to minimize the impact of an emergency whether it is at a school, office building or something that affects your hometown.
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In a facility that draws the same daily population, such as a school or office, subscribers would need to develop contact groups segmented by a variety of characteristics and administration levels. Segmentation would begin with determining who should receive access to operate the Incident Command and Communication portal and others who receive immediate notice of the incident and emergency procedure documents, but no portal control. Other contact groups — especially younger students — would receive less information. How much information is shared with each group depends on the wishes of the building operators and local police. Click here for a flow chart of the process.
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