Story Category: Regional News »

In response to a series of daytime residential burglaries recently in Waldorf, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office has activated its Reverse 911 system, a program that enables the Sheriff’s Office to leave voice-recorded messages about public safety issues on home and business phones within a targeted geographic location.

The calls — which will reach about 24,000 homes by Friday, when the process is expected to finish — notify residences of the burglaries and encourage them to be cautious and make an extra effort to ensure doors and windows are locked. The recording asks citizens to call the Sheriff’s Office if they observe suspicious activity.

The system calls phone numbers in the target location randomly, so once one citizen receives the call, his neighbors’ phones may still ring much later. The Reverse 911 number appears on caller-identifications systems as “unknown” but the Sheriff’s Office is working to update the system to reflect that the calls are being made from a government agency.

For more information about crime prevention and public safety, visit the Sheriff’s Office’s Web site, www.ccso.us.