Ventura County Sheriff's Department

On March 11, 2010, the Camarillo Police Department activated the Ventura County REVERSE 911® system for an endangered missing adult. The call was to be delivered to 64,061 residential and business telephone numbers. Sixteen minutes later the outbound calls were ceased, after a total of 15,811 calls were placed to Camarillo residents and businesses, and the missing adult was found.

“This is another successful way the REVERSE 911® system has been used in our community,” said Camarillo Police Chief, Steve DeCesari.

The system was established in 2008 to deliver alerts when there is a threat to the health or safety of residents in the cities of Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula and the unincorporated areas of Ventura County. The Ventura County REVERSE 911® database currently contains both listed and unlisted landline phone numbers for AT&T and Verizon customers.

In addition to resident calls, the system also sends messages to businesses in the same geographic area. If a business has multiple lines, it is possible that they may receive multiple calls with the same alert.

“We received many calls from businesses reporting that they received multiple REVERSE 911® calls,” said DeCesari. “However, we do have a solution for businesses with multiple lines so that the REVERSE 911® messages do not impact their daily operations.”

Businesses that would like to exclude certain phone numbers from receiving emergency notifications from the Ventura County REVERSE 911® system can forward their request to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services. The request must be on company letterhead and specify which phone lines they would like to have excluded from the Ventura County REVERSE 911® database. The letter should be mailed to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services, Attn: REVERSE 911® Program Administrator, 800 S. Victoria Avenue #3450, Ventura, California 93009.

For more information on REVERSE 911® in Ventura County or to register telephone numbers, residents may go to the County of Ventura website (www.countyofventura.org) and click on the “Disaster Information” link. Questions may also be directed to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services at (805) 648-9283.

Date & Time: March 11, 2010 1:03 PM

Unit Responsible: Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services

Administrator Preparing Release: Cynthia Elliott, OES Program Administrator (805) 654-3655

Follow-up Contact: Erin Edinger, OES Program Administrator (805) 654-3843

Approved By: Laura Hernandez, Assistant Director of Disaster Services

Date of Release: March 15, 2010