MONTE VISTA — During a report at the Monte Vista City Council meeting, Monte Vista Police Chief George Dingfelder talked about Reverse 911 calls in the San Luis Valley. Chief Dingfelder said they are encouraging citizens to sign up for the emergency notifications.

For anyone interested in signing up they can go to www.slve911.org. There you can simply enter your cell phone number and zip code to receive emergency notifications through the reverse 911 system.

“If there’s something going on in the area, and they send a Reverse 911 whether it be an emergency notification for police activity or a fire,” said Chief Dingfelder, adding that they use it for a lot of different emergency communication.

The service is run through the Colorado State Patrol Dispatch Center and will send an alert to your phone in the case of an emergency.

“It will alert your phone, but you have to sign up for that. So, we’re really trying to encourage people to use it,” Chief Dingfelder told the council.

Chief Dingfelder said that the police department recently sent out a couple of Reverse 911 calls in the last few weeks.

“I’ll tell you it worked great because we did Reverse 911 and that information went out and there was a citizen that called in and reported with that armed robbery incident (when) we had those juveniles and the staged armed robbery. They gave us the description. Said ‘I saw that person running down the alley,’ and that led us to some of the evidence,” Chief Dingfelder said.

According to a statement on their website www.slve911.org, “The system allows residents of the San Luis Valley to sign up for free emergency alerts on their cell phone, work phone, text message, email, home phone, etc. Residents can choose the locations they want to be contacted about, as long as those locations are within the boundaries of the San Luis Valley.”

Their website also shares information about when these alerts will be sent out. According to the site, “The system will be used to notify residents about imminent threats to life and property. Public Safety Officials, will send alerts about emergencies such as wildfires, flood, gas leaks, or critical police activity and missing persons.”