City of Inglewood

Michael Falkow, City of Inglewood

Michael Falkow certainly has his hands full. As the City of Inglewood’s deputy city administrator and chief information officer, Falkow is also in charge of emergency preparedness and disaster planning. In these capacities, Falkow is responsible for protecting the well-being of the more than 125,000 residents while keeping information flowing between 14 operating departments with over 1,000 staff members in a crisis. With a high number of transient renters and the growing replacement of traditional landline phones with mobile phones, keeping track of residents and communicating with them in a crisis is a major challenge for the City of Inglewood. Located near Los Angeles International Airport, the City of Inglewood has used the Everbridge system for critical communications through numerous incidents, including the Police Department Operation Golden Phoenix and Golden Guardian emergency response training drills, a waste management strike, power outages, major and localized water shut-offs, and a multi-agency bio-decontamination drill.

Saving Time and Money During Utility Shut-Offs and Repairs

When the whole city was affected by damage to a 12-foot section of water main, Falkow alerted residents across all four Council districts on a rolling basis of the impact of the planned repair on water pressure. The Everbridge system was also instrumental in helping Falkow target communications to those residents located within a few hundred feet of a localized water main rupture that affected more than 350 residents in one neighborhood.

Canvassing the area with city staff to inform residents of a crisis or planned maintenance would have taken too long and required too many resources. Utility bill inserts, which take a month to reach all residents based on billing cycles, were impractical for these time-sensitive communication needs.

“Everbridge is exactly what we need in an incident notification system. We realized an immediate return on investment in the speed in which we are able to communicate internally as well as with citizens. We are able to react and respond accurately and efficiently to any event in a moment’s notice and recommend Everbridge to any organization with similar needs.”
– Michael Falkow, PMP, Deputy City Administrator/CIO, City of Inglewood

Preventing Panic During a Large-Scale Disaster Drill

Large disaster drills can be just as scary as real disasters to the outside observer. When Centinela Hospital Medical Center collaborated with the City of Inglewood’s Police Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department for a major bio-decontamination drill, Falkow used the Everbridge system to proactively notify residents within a one-mile radius of the drill. Because the drill would include a significant amount of fire and police equipment, tents, and “patients” in makeup, Falkow didn’t want to alarm residents and cause unnecessary panic. A week before the drill, then again in the days leading up to it, Falkow sent messages to residents in the affected area alerting them to the drill, explaining the nature of it, and providing information and alternatives for parking.

The Community Responds

Feedback from the community is consistently positive. Council members regularly hear from citizens at town hall meetings that they appreciate receiving alerts about maintenance of water mains, trash pick-up changes, and more so they can plan their days accordingly. Alerts have proven to be more noticeable, effective, and timely than flyers and door hangers.

Not Just for Citizens

Falkow uses the Everbridge emergency notification system internally too for staff call-outs. The solution will also play an important role with the city’s police department: the team is working on building homicide scenarios and leveraging the system for SWAT callouts and to schedule officers needed to work special events. Falkow’s goal is to relieve the watch commander and dispatch from the grueling task of making numerous calls trying to track people down.

Peer-to-Peer: Michael’s Advice

• Designate an internal incident notification owner and champion. You need to rally people internally to work together to maximize your return.
• Map out which events qualify for sending a notification. Make sure the information is relevant and newsworthy, or you risk overwhelming and possibly upsetting people.
• Create scenarios and messages in advance to help you think through what and how to communicate in a crisis when time is precious and decisions are often made very quickly.
• Set up a bulletin board as the callback number displayed in the Caller ID (must be a recognizable number). Record a message with more information and allow callers to transfer to a live representative. Doing this prevents your 911 call center from being flooded with inquiries.
• Add all city employees to the Everbridge system. Use the system to ask employees to report to work and poll them for availability and reporting times when a major incident occurs.