Reverse Phone Lookup Can Rescue Reverse 911

Many of you may have heard of a relatively new phenomenon called the Reverse 911 Telephone System. Across the USA, local police, fire and paramedics departments have been implementing the system for purposes of establishing immediate contact with the population to notify of possible health, weather or other safety emergencies and provide instructions for further actions.

Thus far, the feedback has been very positive. Most people who have had the opportunity to experience the system at work, have been grateful to have up-to-the-minute alerts and pertinent information. These are the area residents whose phone numbers have made it into the system. The problem authorities have encountered is obtaining phone numbers for every household in their jurisdiction. People are encouraged to update online databases with current contact information, but it hasn't worked as well as expected. So far, only about half of the overall population has done so.

So what are the authorities to do? After all, sometimes people have to be saved in spite of themselves. One can't only alert those who've bothered to help themselves and allow all the others to fend for themselves! Therefore, the only way to make the Reverse 911 telephone system truly effective is for the public safety departments to do the job themselves and populate the databases with every resident's phone number. But how?! Why, reverse phone lookup, of course!

One imagines, every town can spare a couple of operators to mine the phone data by running a reverse phone lookup on every household, and subsequently populating the databases. More often than not, these transactions may even be free for published numbers. And even when they are not, it seems to make sense to spend a handful of change per transaction after spending thousands of dollars on a system that can't achieve its optimal potential unless it can reach, forewarn and protect every individual. So, man up public servants, and do the job yourselves if you want it done right. Without the help of reverse phone lookups, the Reverse 911 System is a hit-or-miss at best, and that's just not what it was meant to be.