FDLE unveils terror-alert system for businesses

Miami Herald--May 08, 2008

By DAVID OVALLE

Businesses will be able to get real-time domestic terrorism alerts through a new electronic messaging system announced Wednesday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The system, named BusinesSafe, will allow participating businesses to get e-mail and text-message alerts about emergencies or suspicious activities reported to the state. A bomb threat or other security threat to a mall, for instance, would be sent to stores in that mall.

Or, flight schools could be alerted about customers who are requesting curious pilot training.

”We’ll be able to reach thousands of businesses with a click of a mouse,” said FDLE Regional Director Amos Rojas Jr., who was joined at a news conference by other law-enforcement agents and representatives of business and municipal government security operations.

Rojas encouraged businesses to sign up for the new system at www.fdle.state.fl.us.

Also at that website, businesses can send in tips and report suspicious activities via an e-mail link. The information will go to an FDLE analyst for review, Rojas said.

The FDLE is partnering with the state’s regional domestic-security task forces, as well as the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation and Department of State.

Mark Wilson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said of the organization’s 139,000 employers: “We encourage all of them to engage in this system to make our business community safer and smarter.”