In an increased effort to better prepare people for man-made and natural disasters, University Police may consider adding a reverse 911 phone system to its arsenal.

Reverse 911 is a method that has been used in DuPage County for years, and recently Chicago chose it as another alternative to its emergency alert system. Chicago lagged behind on such a measure because of the large span of people it would have to accommodate in order to be effective.

The process costs about $30,000 to set up and monitor within a large county and would cost about $1,000 per month thereafter.

The automated system would notify people by telephone or other means that a threat is imminent. For example, in DeKalb, the alert system could notify people as soon as possible if a tornado has been sighted or a chemical spill occurred at the water tower on the west side of town.

Lt. Debra Pettit said UP has considered such a means of notifying students and faculty of these dangers.

“We’ve been talking with people from the NIU telephone system,” she said. “We do have the capabilities to bring in this system.”

Pettit said the UP did something similar four years ago when a salesman committed sexual assault. She said they were able to notify people over the phone to alert them about a potential danger existing on campus.

Pettit said another method in place that helps notify the campus of emergencies is Internal Technology System mass e-mail notifications. She said working with ITS would be a good way to increase public awareness of emergencies if they are able to install reverse 911. She said a flaw of the ITS mass e-mail system is not every NIU student has an NIU account to access the system.

Pettit said with reverse 911 on campus, they’d be able to get a hold of various residence halls through interactive maps that contain wide varieties of numbers to dial. She said they’d also be able to contact employees in the heating building or faculty in various buildings.

She said it would be ideal to have this system on campus because of multiple benefits in terms of safety and awareness it could provide students.

The DeKalb Police Department has a system installed within their jurisdiction; however, Pettit said they’d like to complement it by making such a system available throughout the city.