Emergency notification system keeps Westport in the know, helps police

On March 4, police set up a perimeter. A police dog was also involved in the search. An 82-year-old man suffering from Alzheimer's had wandered away from a parked car while his wife was in Town Hall.

Police had to find the man, a Vermont resident, before it was too late. He could have inadvertently walked into high-speed traffic or been unconscious in the woods. Nobody could be certain.

"In these cases, a lot of people become very confused and unaware of their surroundings and they'll continue to walk and walk and walk with no direction or bearing on any specific location they're going to," said Capt. Sam Arciola.

After more than an hour of searching, the man was nowhere to be found. Some extra eyes and ears were needed to help solve the case.

While police were pounding the pavement in the 45-degree weather to find the confused man, Shift Commander Lt. Arthur Belile was aiding in the search by going online. Using the town's emergency notification system, CodeRED, he sent out an automated voice message about the missing person to every number in town that was available. Belile could have pinpointed the message to a particular neighborhood, but after about 90 minutes, the man could have been just about anywhere.

21st century policing

Since December 2008, the town has used CodeRED to warn people of traffic accidents, weather warnings and to ask for help in investigations.

Pete Applegarth, regional sales executive of the Florida-based company, has seen CodeRED utilized for a variety of reasons throughout the 30 Connecticut municipalities that use the product.

"It's been used for bomb threats in Wolcott, tropical storm warnings in Milford, chemical spills and [hazardous materials] in Naugatuck, wide-spread power outages, fires, coastal flooding in towns like Westport," he said. "Missing persons, criminals, sexual offenders. Even a wild bear in Prospect and Meriden."

The previous incarnation of the company was devoted to telemarketing, political campaign calls and other automated calls. In 1998, the company's missions changed with an outbreak of wildfires that were occurring close to the company's offices in Melbourne, Fla.

"The wildfires were particularly bad in our area and the fire chief and the police chief knew the owners of our company," Applegarth said. "They knew we could launch high volumes of phone calls so they came to us said, `Hey, if we get some telephone numbers to you, could you help us evacuate these neighbors?'"

CodeRED was born and is now used in 49 states (with hopes of finally selling the service to Alaska, according to Applegarth).

Arciola couldn't be happier with the department's success using the service.

"I can't say enough about the program," he said. "We're very happy with it. The results have been phenomenal and its application is not used just for missing persons."

If there's a crime in one part of town, a notification can be sent out to neighbors telling them that police are in the area and looking for a person matching a particular description. The pool of potential witnesses in such events can be quite large. Many numbers are already listed in the database, and new numbers and cell phone numbers can be registered at a link provided at www.westportct.gov/news/coderednewsrelease.htm

Case closed

When the man couldn't be found, the notifications went out to thousands of numbers throughout town. According to the police report, a driver on Compo Road North got the call on her cell phone and pulled over to listen to it. She looked over and saw a man who fit the description sitting on a stone wall at Winslow Park. Within minutes of sending out the notification, the man was found.

Police arrived to take him back to Town Hall and after an examination by Westport Emergency Medical Services, he was reunited with his wife, safe and sound.

"Everybody is our eyes and ears. Everybody is involved in it. [CodeRED] puts it out there to the community," Arciola said. "We can't be everywhere at once. ... We had a good citizen who happened to be in the right place at the right time."

This was the third time that the Westport Police Department has used the service to locate a missing person, and the third time CodeRED proved to be successful.