Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Emergency Preparedness Network helped locate missing girl - 1/21/2004 EAGAN: Phone alert system helps track down girl Page 1 of 2
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Posted on Wed,Jan. 21, 2004
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EAGAN: Phone alert system helps track down girl
BY BOB SHAW
Pioneer Press
It works.
Eagan's new "demon dialer" — imitating technology from mass-telephone marketers — was critical in locating a
missing 15-year-old girl Monday. In its first test, it worked exactly as it should, alerting a citizen who later spotted
the girl in a parking lot.
She was returned home, unharmed except for a good case of the shivers.
"It was the first time we used it, and it was outstanding," said Troy Ruby, who manages the Eagan system, which is
called the Emergency Preparedness Network.
The service, for which Eagan Police paid $28,500 in December, can send a recorded message to thousands of
phones within a certain area, alerting citizens about emergencies.
For example, Ruby said Tuesday, if a child wanders out of a yard, police could send a message to all telephones
within a certain distance of the child's home. Officials can even draw an irregular area on a computerized map, and
the computers will call everyone in that area.
It can make up to 2,000 calls a minute, said Ruby.
On Monday, the unidentified girl jumped out of her mother's car at Johnny Cake Road and Woodgate Lane at 4:30
p.m. Police said she has "psychiatric problems" and was not dressed for single-digit cold.
A recorded message, describing a "missing, vulnerable female juvenile, 135-pounds, shoulder-length hair" was sent
out to 1,572 telephones in the area. It took about six minutes, including another call after 90 seconds if a line was
busy.
An unidentified Eagan man spotted the girl in the parking lot of Lifetime Fitness in Eagan. He called police, who
quickly picked up the girl.
Ruby said Eagan is the only city in Minnesota with this technology, which uses address and telephone information
from 911 data.
He said that it is a supplement, not a replacement, for systems such as Amber Alert. That system alerts the public
in missing-persons cases but relies on messages distributed on TV, radio and billboards.
Bob Shaw can be reached at bshaw@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5433.
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