Dispatchers connect to citizens via smartphone app
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency now can alert its citizens during natural or manmade disasters via Ping4alerts!, a free smartphone app that uses geo-location technology. The smartphone app complements MEMA’s current public-alerting system, which includes radio and television alerts through the Emergency Alert System, the Mass 211 system, and MEMA’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Geo-fencing technology built into the application lets MEMA send targeted, multimedia alerts to iPhone and Android devices to notify citizens about severe weather warnings, flash floods, dangerous storms, missing persons, terror threats, crimes in progress and urgent federal communications. At the same time, personal data is protected, as alert transmitters do not have access to users’ information, said Jim Bender, the company’s president and CEO.
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