Officials to Test Townwide Alert System Today

Editor's note: The following information comes from the town of Arlington.

Officials will conduct a townwide Arlington Alert test phone call on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at about 2 p.m.. to introduce the service to residents and
inform them on how to register to receive alerts by text, email and on their cell phones.

Arlington Alerts will replace the current Reverse 911 system and will greatly improve the town’s ability to communicate with residents during time-sensitive events. Residents are asked to register for additional information after the test call is made, anytime after 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The updated service offers faster phone notification and adds text and email capabilities. The new system only takes 10 to 20 minutes, compared the the three to four hours it could take with the previous one. Another reason for this test call is to help ensure the data in the Arlington Alert system is accurate.

“All individuals and businesses should take the time to visit our website and add contact information to include cellular phones and other non-traditional phones as well as email and text addresses,” Chief Fred Ryan said. “If your contact information is not in the database, you will not receive a call when an urgent message is sent."

Town officials selected CodeRED, a product of the Emergency Communications Network to provide the backend of the Arlington Alert system. CodeRED is used by 44 percent of municipalities in Massachusetts, including Cambridge, Bedford and Lexington.

Residents can learn more about Arlington Alerts and register their contact information online, after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, at Arlingtonma.gov/subscriber.