New KCSO Call System aids evacuation

Knoxville, TN - The Knox County Sheriff’s Office has a new high-speed notification system that was an invaluable tool in evacuating thousands of people in the Farragut area on Sunday immediately following the train derailment. The system is called “The Communicator” and is from Dialogic Communications Corporation. The evacuation was the first opportunity to utilize the system on such a large scale. Within minutes of being notified of the sulfuric acid leak from the train derailment, KCSO determined the three mile radius of the leak on the GIS program which is part of the “The Communicator” and began calling approximately 9,100 homes in that area with the message that a train had derailed and was leaking sulfuric acid. The message further stated that for public safety and precaution, all residents within a three-mile area of Turkey Creek and Brixworth were advised to evacuate the area and tune into local news for further information. BellSouth furnished the published numbers of residents and businesses. Right now, KCSO is working on a way to have people with unlisted numbers included in the system. This will be handled through an application that will be available on the KCSO website and through a newspaper advertisement. The system was purchased through a block grant from Knox County. “This system has enormous potential in alerting the community to a variety of situations-from a lost child to stopping criminal activity such as check scams or robberies,” said Sheriff Tim Hutchison. “This high speed notification allows us to inform and protect citizens without draining KCSO resources. It also allows us to free up more people so they can focus on the situation. Its uses are practically unlimited.” KCSO has been using the system since it was installed in July to notify special teams of critical incidents and to help in the search for Amy Latus. In case of any problems, the system is backed up by another high-speed notification system.