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Critical Reach Now Available at LOW COST
“America’s
Community Alert Solution” Is Here
Critical
Reach and Amber Alerts
Statewide Deployment in New Jersey
SUCCESS:
Bank Robber Busted
Critical Reach Now Available at LOW COST
Funding from private donors has enabled Critical Reach to provide health and safety authorities with a proven, real-time, image-based alert solution AT LOW COST.
1700 law enforcement agencies in several states use Critical Reach, and the organization is now deploying its alert system nationwide—at low cost to authorities.
If you are interested in obtaining Critical Reach for your agency at low cost, simply contact us at (800) 724-8725 or download an enrollment form.
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“America’s
Community Alert System” Is Here
In the aftermath of September 11, one thing became clear—authorities
must be able to get vital health and safety information
to each other and the public fast.
Alarmingly, over 90% of U.S. health and safety authorities still lack a shared system that ensures immediate alert distribution.
To combat the problem, Critical Reach is extending its proven alert solution nationwide as “America’s Community Alert System.” Critical Reach is an image-based alert solution
that is:
- Low Cost—Donor support ensures that qualified authorities receive our solution and support at low cost.
- Fast—Immediately
dispatches alerts to e-mails, faxes, pagers, wireless units,
and other Critical Reach systems.
- Flexible
and Multipurpose—Enables authorities to
create and distribute alerts for any contingency, including
violent crime, terrorist threats, disease outbreaks, missing/endangered children,
stolen property, fire threats, etc.
- Scalable—Allows
for alert distribution to a single recipient or to thousands
on a local, county, state, regional, or national level—all
with just a few mouse clicks.
- Targeted—Provides a unique shared address book that enables users to send alerts to precise recipients.
1700 law enforcement agencies in several states currently use Critical Reach, but thousands more urgently need this shared alerting technology.
As a nonprofit
organization, Critical Reach depends on donor
support to quickly deliver its alert
solution to the health and safety authorities who need it—at low cost. This
public/private partnership blends technology and philanthropy
to make Critical Reach available to all communities.
For information
on how you can help support or deploy Critical Reach, call 800/724-8725.
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Critical
Reach and Amber Alerts
Amber
Alert programs in virtually every state have proven to be effective
in bringing abducted kids home safely. Combined with Critical
Reach, there is a great deal more that can be done to safeguard
our children:
- There often
is a delay between a missing-child report and Amber
Alert activation as investigators determine whether
the case meets the strict Amber Alert protocols.
Critical Reach
enables local law enforcement to act immediately, transmitting
photo bulletins to surrounding jurisdictions and communitywide. Swift action during those precious early minutes markedly improves
a child's chances of returning home.
- Amber Alerts are only activated in the very rare circumstances
of a stranger abduction of a child under 18 years, just 0.1% of all missing children
cases. Amber Alerts
provide no value for the other 99.9% of missing child cases. Critical Reach is the ideal tool to enable
local authorities to respond quickly in partnership with their
community on all cases.
- One of
the gaps in many Amber Alert programs is the inability for local
jurisdictions handling the case to submit images and information
to the Amber Authority. Critical Reach bridges
this gap by customizing Amber Alert protocol procedures within
the software.
- Many Amber
Alert responses are focused on activating the Emergency Alert
System and having media broadcast the alert message. Critical
Reach supplements this response by enabling the Amber Authority
to transmit color photo alerts to all law enforcement jurisdictions,
transportation centers, neighboring states, corporate partners,
community organizations, schools, malls, and more. Within minutes,
images and information about the child and suspect can be broadly
distributed regionally or statewide. This expanded alert distribution
perfectly complements the media activation.
New Jersey
integrated its state Amber Alert protocol directly into the Critical
Reach software, which has been deployed to 500 local jurisdictions.
The result is a fast, efficient, statewide response involving all
law enforcement, media, and thousands of community partners.
Contact Critical
Reach at 800/274-8725 for information on how to supplement your
Amber Alert system.
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Statewide Deployment in New Jersey
Critical Reach has completed a statewide deployment to 500 New Jersey law enforcement agencies. The system provides New Jersey authorities with a multipurpose alert tool valuable for any type of case or community safety threat, including terrorism.
Critical Reach alert software bridges the communications gap among federal, state, county, and municipal jurisdictions, enabling authorities to send color photo bulletins statewide within minutes.
New Jersey has integrated its State Amber Alert Protocol directly into the Critical Reach software. Color photos of the abducted child can be added in the first minutes of a case, and images and information transmitted directly to the State Amber Alert Authority. From there, thousands of recipients—including media—immediately receive the Amber Alert.
Critical Reach transmits over 900,000 image-based safety alerts each month. The shared address book of public alert recipients enables authorities to quickly provide information to schools, businesses, medical facilities, transportation centers, and community organizations.
For details on how your state can get started with Critical Reach, call 800/724-8725.
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SUCCESS:
Bank Robber Busted
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But for one bank
robber, a picture cost him $4,000 and his freedom after a Critical Reach
photo alert led to his identification and arrest.
The suspect entered a Bank of America branch in Campbell,
California, and handed a teller a note that said: “I have
a gun! Give me money or die.” The victim complied, and the
suspect fled on foot with more than $4,000. But he left something
behind—his image on the bank’s surveillance camera.
Officers from
the Campbell Police Department used the image to create a Critical
Reach alert, which was forwarded within minutes to multiple police
jurisdictions in several Northern California counties.
Within one
hour, a detective from the Pacifica Police Department phoned to
say that he recognized the suspect and could identify him. With
that critical information in hand, Campbell PD robbery investigator
Joe Cefalu obtained the man’s photo from the Department
of Motor Vehicles and gathered a positive identification from
witnesses at the bank. A warrant was issued for the suspect, and
he soon was arrested by Las Vegas police.
“Without
the ability to quickly get this subject’s face out to multiple
police agencies, it is doubtful this case would have been solved
so expeditiously,” says Sergeant Richard Shipman of the
Campbell Police Department.
“The
ability to transmit photos to other agencies is a major advantage,”
Shipman explains. “Critical Reach aids our investigations
tremendously because other agencies are very responsive to the
alert flyers. And we all do better when we can see a face instead
of a written description.”
Read more
Critical Reach success stories to learn
how authorities nationwide are using Critical Reach to close cases
faster and easier. Contact Critical Reach for details on how to deploy the system at your agency at low cost.
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