By Rhonda A. Spears
February 3, 2003

During the Closing Plenary Luncheon, January 24, at the 71st Annual Winter Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors, Ernie Allen, President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), spoke to mayors about the need to incorporate Emergency Telephone Notification into their homeland security and city safety plans. This system, called IntelliCast Target Notification, was designed by Intrado, the Conference's newest corporate partner.

"Intrado is the nation's leading provider of 9-1-1 data management solutions for telecommunications providers and public safety organizations. Their IntelliCast Target Notification system is a great tool that can be used by city public safety officials to rapidly identify, notify and instruct affected people in a crisis situation," Allen said.

Through the Intellicast system, Intrado can help the nation's mayors alert their communities to emergencies such as natural disasters, impending dangers and missing persons. "IntelliCast has already been used successfully in thousands of emergency situations. And it's already working to find missing children," he continued.

Allen went on to explain that in an emergency, IntelliCast can automatically place thousands of calls in minutes to a geographically specified area and deliver an emergency message. "Whether for fires, floods, weather-related incidents, hazardous materials spills, suspect-at-large notifications, terrorist alerts, public health alerts, or missing child searches, IntelliCast is a powerful and effective tool," Allen concluded.

For more information about Intellicast, Intrado's Emergency Notification System, please contact Rhonda Spears at The United States Conference of Mayors at (202) 861-6794 or via email at lhammond@usmayors.org.