Emergency Alerts / RAVE / CodeRed / Reverse 911

Sign up for RAVE Alerts and Smart 911 here:

https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=bpd

The Town of Burlington is going to be making a switch to a new Emergency Notification Service. This is the system that is used by town agencies to inform citizens in emergency situations, as well as for special events or DPW concerns.

Our last system is called CodeRed and we will be switching to a new system called RAVE. The switch will occur on July 1st.

Residents may receive calls from the old system telling them about the switch as well as a test call from the new system.

RAVE is a Massachusetts based company and will provide the same services and features that were provided by CodeRed. We are in the process of moving our existing data to the new system. Residents and Business owners will be able to go to a web-based self-service portal to change and update their contacts and preferences. 

For those who can't do this online themselves, the Analyst at the Burlington Police Department will be able to help.

Test calls will be coming this week, and more information will be on the Town website soon.

Why the switch?

The main purpose of Community Notification Systems (CNS) or Emergency Notification Systems (ENS) or Emergency Alert System (EAS) is to warn residents during emergencies. They also provide an added benefit of allowing jurisdictions to send non-emergency messages at other times.

The Town of Burlington has used various services for CNS in the past. We started with an 8-line Reverse 911 system several years ago that was managed by the Police Department. The Town then transitioned to an online system called Connect 5 (Later named Connect 7) and then transitioned to another system called Blackboard, and then to our current system, CodeRed.

The reasons for these changes were that better systems and technology became available and we wanted Burlington to have the best system available.

We became aware that CodeRed had some problems with ease of use and that most users of the system were hoping to find an improved service. After months of research in collaboration with all of the town agencies who regularly or occasionally use CodeRed, we found that RAVE offered the best alternative to the system. RAVE offers the same capabilities as CodeRed with some minor upgrades, a better and easier-to-use user interface, and an almost identical annual price point to CodeRed.