BARRHEAD — The Barrhead and Regional Crime Coalition (BARCC) is integrating a new “Alert Ready” feature into its regional alert system that will send automated messages about major disasters to those residents who lack cellphones or e-mail addresses.
BARCC is a regional partnership between the Town of Barrhead, the County of Barrhead, Woodlands County, the RCMP and the Barrhead & District Rural Crime Watch Association.
Since launching the BARCC Connect regional alert system over a year and a half ago, dozens of alerts have been sent out to hundreds of residents regarding suspicious individuals, emergency situations and a few routine announcements.
On Sept. 10, the members of BARCC decided to move forward with a new “Alert Ready” feature for a six-month trial period.
As noted in a press release, Alert Ready is an integration feature with Canada Emergency Alert Systems that was developed in partnership with the federal and provincial governments.
Shannon Prociuk, economic development and communications co-ordinator for the County of Barrhead, said it’s basically a “first of its kind technology” that will ensure residents who either don’t have cellphones (or who have very limited cellphone coverage) will receive alerts via their landlines.
The Alert Ready feature will send out severe weather warnings, Amber Alerts, warnings about nearby fires and terrorist incidents, alerts regarding chemical spills or the presence of explosives, and a few routine test messages.
Prociuk said the six-month trial has now officially started. In fact, an alert was sent out through the BARCC Connect system on Sept. 17 alerting local residents to the new feature.
It has been a while since any BARCC alerts had been sent out, though Prociuk pointed out it has been quiet with the COVID-19 pandemic going on.
That said, Prociuk said sign-up for BARCC Connect is still going well and is sustainable.
“I think we’re looking at some promotion measures in the near future; we just haven’t decided what we’re going to do,” she added.
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