The Adams County Sheriff’s Office took to social media to respond to media reports that raised questions about the department’s use of an emergency notification system.
The FirstCall system, an automated phone notification system, has reportedly been used for notifying people of regular community meetings.
The , saying it is not really an emergency alert system, and defending its calls to notify people of community meetings.
“We began using FirstCall in an effort to increase the attendance at community meetings and it worked,” the Facebook post reads. “Instead of dealing with marginal attendance of a dozen or less citizens, we now have consistent attendance numbers of 40 to 70 people per meeting.”
A called the practice risky because it could desensitize people to automated notification calls when a real emergency is occurring.
Information about the system FirstCall “will only be activated in an emergency situation where there is a risk of significant harm, an urgent threat, or when a general notification is needed.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@ denverpost.com or twitter.com/yeseniarobles
