Decatur Code Red Freaks Me Out
Decatur Metro | December 12, 2007
Anyone else just receive a call from 999/911-9999?
That would have been Decatur’s new Code Red system notifying you that non-safety operations (including trash) will not be available on December 31st and January 1st as first reported on the little yellow door tags we got a few weeks ago.
Will we now be getting a call for every trash-related emergency?
The phone number alone kinda freaked me out. It was almost as scary as getting a call from 666/666-6666.
UPDATE: See Linda Harris’ official city comments below clarifying that yesterday’s call was a system test and they won’t always be using this to report minor things like changes to the trash system.
Regardless of my teasing (which is just more fun to write), I do think this is a great initiative taken up by the city. This isn’t the kind of good PR, knee-jerk reaction to crises we see at the federal level. This is cool-headed planning that ultimately can save lives in an emergency. Kudos to everyone at the city level that worked on making this project a reality.
I’m with you! I got one of those calls tonight, and my brain focused on the words “red” and “emergency” before it eventually caught up and parsed all the other words. It’s very strange, but also very cool in a way. None of the other cities I’ve lived in ever bothered to call me and let me know that the trash won’t be picked up on its usually scheduled day.
The City of Decatur tested our Code Red Emergency System yesterday. Since it is brand new, we wanted to make sure it worked before we had an actual emergency. Originally we had planned to just say this is a test of the Code Red Emergency System. However, when we decided to change the trash pick-up on December 31 and January 1, we thought it would be a good way to give people the information as part of the test. We do not plan to use the system for announcements such as these on a regular basis. We are using the data we received and the feedback such as this as we move forward. Hopefully we will never have to use the system but it is good to know that it works.
Linda Harris
City of Decatur
Community & Economic Development Department