THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511080166
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
A computer glitch in the Portsmouth Police Department's new Reverse 911 calling system gave new meaning to the phrase ``a thousand apologies'' last week.
It all started when Detective Jon Holloway, system manager for the computerized calling system, launched calls to about 1,700 residents of Park View and surrounding areas to tell them about a community policing meeting.
The computer system is only supposed to make calls between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., he said. But the system crashed with about 400 calls left to make.
Holloway called the company that sold the police department the computer system, but had gone home by the time the program healed itself.
That was about 1 o'clock in the morning, and like a good little computer program it continued to call those last 400 residents until 3 a.m.
Needless to say, many of those residents called back - and they weren't happy.
So the next day, Holloway launched more than 1,000 calls all over again - this time to apologize to anyone who happened to be awakened during the wee hours of the night.
He promises the problem's been corrected now and the computer won't call after 5 p.m. So don't kill the messenger or miss the message.
Community policing has arrived. Questions? Call Officers John Donahue or Sean Dunn at 397-0659.
- Janie Bryant by CNB