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Alert system coming to Fort Payne

Officers with the Fort Payne Police Department will receive specialized training starting next week in use of a free alert program that could help locate missing persons, including children.

Police Commissioner Ron Ogletree said all Fort Payne officers would eventually be trained in the use of the “A Child Is Missing Alert Program,” a free service that uses rapid response telephony to notify those in a specified area about a missing person.

The program helps law enforcement agencies locate missing children, missing elderly persons (often suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease), college students and missing persons who are mentally or physically challenged or disabled.

The program provides a high-tech method for responding police officers using sophisticated computer mapping systems and trained technicians, with the capacity to place 1,000 alert phone calls in one minute, to residents and businesses in the area where someone has gone missing.

This technology allows responding police officers and detectives from Fort Payne to make an initial phone call to a toll-free number that rings in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — the national headquarters of the non-profit “A Child Is Missing Alert Program.” The alert program can only be activated by law enforcement.

The call, answered around-the-clock, 365 days a year by an information and mapping technician, initiates a rapid process of information gathering and use of sophisticated mapping systems, Ogletree said.

He said the center is then able to launch potentially thousands of calls within minutes with an alert message detailing the missing person’s description, last known whereabouts and pertinent information inside a specified radius.

Moments after putting in an address, an aerial view of the region is seen, complete with street names, local landmarks, type of terrain, business listings, restaurants, schools, water, parks, bus and train stations and more. Ogletree said this allows the technician to intuitively grasp distance, scale, proximity, and know the region as a whole.

“All of this information could prove invaluable when evaluating a missing child scenario,” Oglegree said. “Armed with this tool, hotspots can be identified – areas to where a missing child might gravitate.

“A child’s curiosity might lead them to a lake. A wandering pre-teen on a cold evening might seek the warmth and camouflage of a fast food restaurant. Further, the technician can seamlessly follow a likely path of a missing child or elderly person and reasonably project a best instance ‘finder zone’ when expanding a regional search.”

Telephone numbers that are called by this program include listed numbers in the selected area, but do not include cell phone numbers, unlisted numbers, broadband/voice-over IP numbers or TDD/TTY devices. These numbers can be added to ensure that they, too, are called in the event of an alert.

To enter a cell phone, unlisted, broadband/voice-over IP or TDD/TTY device number, visit achildismissing.org and click on “add your name” to enter your name, number and address. This information will only be used for emergency message alerts, Ogletree said.