At halfhalfhalfhalf an hour westwestwestwest of Fortrt Worthrthrth, Parker County is fairly insulated from the hustle and bustle of the Metroplex. Law enforcement officers are more likely to deal with runaway livestock than runaway criminals. So when 30-year-old Kenyon Grady Cox escaped capture by police on Jan. 3, county officials were worried. Cox — wanted for multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — was dangerous.

Sheriff’s deputies and SWAT officers sprang into action. A helicopter was dispatched to comb the area. And County Judge Mark Riley picked up the phone to activate the county’s emergency call system to alert residents that Cox was on the loose.

An emergency call system is a recorded message that can be sent to numerous people at one time using a variety of commmunications methods. For Parker County, it proved to be a valuable tool. It helped keep residents safe and vigilant, and the next day, two local women who had heard Riley’s recorded message and saw the fugitive walking along a rural road reported the incident to police. Cox was captured shortly after. The call system had done its job — but not without a few hitches.

Calls were supposed to take place on the evening of Cox’s escape, but some residents received them as late as 11:30 p.m. “We always told them that you stop at 10 p.m., unless we specified otherwise,” Riley said. “It’s supposed to be in our file.”

Someone within the county contacted the administering company to halt the late-night calls and resume them the next morning — but the calls resumed too early. “They started at 6 a.m., and I never would have done that,” Riley said.

Riley’s story illustrates the importance of a properly functioning emergency call system. When working correctly, such systems can be an efficient way to spread an urgent message. But when problems occur, the systems can become both a blessing and a curse. Choosing the system wisely can go a long way towards making them run smoothly. Point, click, call

When severe weather, chemical spills or other emergencies crop up, time is of the essence — and fiddling with a temperamental or unreliable call system is not a good use of time. Systems with Web-based interfaces can help make the notification process easier, particularly when an emergency is highly localized.

“We’ve got a database with phone numbers in [the Midland area] tied to a map,” said Eva Luna, communications manager for the city of Midland, which also provides emergency notification services for Midland County. “If we have to do a certain area of notification, we would go in on the Internet and draw what area we want notified.”

Parker County Fire Marshal Shawn Scott said that under his county’s current emergency call system, officials must make a telephone call to the company and tell a representative which streets mark the boundaries of the affected area. Having a Web-based interface is preferable, he said.

“We have people within another state, not familiar with anything of yours, and then we have to get them to understand the area we’re trying to reach,” Scott said. “We’ve spent as much as 45 minutes trying to designate an area for calls. That’s precious time wasted.”

Parker County’s contract with their current service is up in March. Scott said most of the systems he has considered also enable emergency management officials to pre-select areas of the county (such as those prone to flooding) and then activate them via cellular phone, which is helpful when being in front of a computer isn’t possible. Scott said some systems also have “polling” capabilities to let officials know how many people need help when dangerous situations arise.

“They’ll say things like, ‘If you need assistance evacuating, press 1, and if you’re self-evacuating, press 2,’” Scott said. “That way we’ll know, hey, the person at this address has pressed 1 — they need assistance. That, to me, is one of the best features.”

Reaching the landline-less

As Internet connections depend less on traditional phone lines and people depend more on 24/7 availability, landline phones are de- creasing in popularity. According to a survey by the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention, about 13 percent of American homes had only wireless phones in 2007, compared to about 10 percent in 2006. As a result, fewer households are registered in the 911 database, and reaching them with an emergency call system can be trickier.

Tarrant County’s unincorporated areas currently have no emer- gency call system in place. Melissa Patterson, the county’s emergen- cy management coordinator, said offi cials are looking to purchase a system within the next six months that has the capability to send messages to multiple kinds of communications devices. Residents would follow a link on the county’s Web site to register their contact information in the database.

“It would be able to reach cell phones, home phones, pagers, work phones, do text messages, emails and leave voicemails and contact TTy machines (text telephones for the deaf),” Patterson said.

Scott said after Parker County chooses its new notifi cation sys- tem, offi cials will launch a media campaign to urge wireless-only residents to register themselves in the database. People with land- lines could also use the same system to opt out of calls concerning non-life-threatening situations, such as a missing-person case.

It is important to choose carefully, Scott said, since the sheer number of emergency call systems vendors can be dizzying. “Every time the weather gets bad, there seems to be more of them,” he said.

Let’s get together

In areas where multiple counties and cities can be aff ected by the same tornado or toxic spill, partnering with other governments can make emergency call systems even more eff ective. Besides creating greater buying power, an alliance can enable jurisdictions to share resources. Such is the case with Comal County, which partners with Guadalupe County, Bexar County and the San Antonio metro area for emergency calls. Th e phone lines of each jurisdiction are net- worked together so residents can be contacted more quickly. For example, Comal County can combine its 24 outgoing lines with Guadalupe County’s 24 lines and Bexar metro’s 96 lines to make more calls simultaneously.

“It’s great to have the capability to get that message out fast, espe- cially if you need people to shelter in place or need to move people in certain areas and give them the warning,” said Carol Edgett, Comal County’s emergency management coordinator. “Th ey may not have a radio or television on, but they may pick up their telephone.”

Can’t afford it? Get creative

Smaller counties with a sparse population may not be able to budget for emergency notifi cation systems, so offi cials in those counties have to seek other means of notifi cation when urgent situations arise. Deaf Smith County Judge Tom Simons said his county, with a population of about 18,000, relies on local media outlets to get the word out.

“To notify people in the hinterlands, we use three radio stations,” Simons said. “Weather-wise, we rely on Amarillo television stations, which are 45 miles away.”

offi cials may also want to approach larger neighboring counties and cities to see how much it would cost to network into their exist- ing system. Edgett said the Comal/Guadalupe/Bexar system is cur- rently working to get their system up and running for some smaller, rural jurisdictions.”