Web alarms, mobile alerts aim to make you safer

By Michele Gershberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - From emergency message networks that can reach 100,000 people within minutes, to alarm systems that allow you to monitor your home over the Web, new technologies are aiming to make U.S. consumers feel safer.

While institutions such as immigration services, banks and credit card companies continue to improve their systems to prevent fraud or theft, in many cases homeowners and their communities haven't kept pace.

That's starting to change -- but, unfortunately, it often takes a major disaster or tragedy to get people thinking about how to better protect themselves and their families.

Many new security technologies have sprouted as a result of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The deadly rampage by a lone gunman that claimed 32 lives at Virginia Tech university last month brought renewed attention to a wave of companies offering the latest technology to keep people informed, and hopefully safe.

"It's probably one of the most backward industries in the United States today," said Vincent Tedesco, chief executive of Total Computer Group (TCG), referring to security technologies for identifying criminals. His company builds software applications for law enforcement agencies.

TCG is trying to remedy the situation with software that helps give police departments rapid access to crime records via a handheld-device linked to a Microsoft-supported database.

TCG's system could clue-in police, in the course of a routine identity check, whether they are dealing with someone who has a criminal record.

"Mohammed Atta was pulled over (while driving) in Florida and he had no license," Tedesco said, referring to one of the September 11 suicide plane hijackers. "If that officer had this product he would have known this guy was on the FBI terrorist list."

In the last few months alone, TCG has reached deals with 58 police departments in Pennsylvania and 20 new departments in New York state. The company is also in talks with authorities in the United Kingdom and with the Sultan of Brunei.

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The Virginia Tech tragedy has spawned interest in ways to alert large groups of people of an unfolding crisis, whether by phone, text message or email.

"Everyone is becoming much more aware that there's technology out there in a situation where you want to get an urgent message out," said Mike Taylor, vice president of marketing for Honeywell Building Solutions.

"Until you have a crisis, the sense of urgency around doing something with it just isn't there," he said.

Honeywell recently upgraded a system used by schools to meet the needs of universities in alerting students to potential danger. The Instant Alert Plus technology can make 100,000 30-second phone calls and send 125,000 text messages within 15 minutes.