RECENT PRESS RELEASES
MULTIMAP.COM PROFILE


10 March 2003

Multimap works with Community Alerts on ground-breaking new service

Multimap.com, Europe's leading online mapping company, has produced a geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") search facility for the innovative new Community Alerts Service.

The new service will have a variety of important roles to play within the community. These could vary from tracing kidnapped children within the first crucial hours after abduction, to alerting communities to flood warnings or even health warnings. The Community Alerts Service works by notifying the public as quickly as possible about a specified alert, for example an abduction of a child, so individuals can act on that information and, in the case of an abduction, keep their eyes peeled.

Sussex Police is working with Community Alerts for a pilot period to develop their groundbreaking Child Rescue Alert scheme further. The service enables Sussex Police to send out SMS messages to registered members of the public who are in an area where a child is reported missing. Messaging is targeted accurately so members of the public receive only alerts that are relevant to them. A campaign is now underway to sign up as many people as possible.

Multimap.com produced the location capability that allows Community Alerts to search for people who have registered (members of the general public and the media) in order to target them accurately. A police officer simply enters the street and town or postcode and the required radius of the search to see a clear map, which displays the location, its selected radius and the number of registered people within it.

The Service is based on an American project called Amber Alert, which notifies television and radio stations to put out alerts to their audience, notifying them about a specific crime.

DCI Martyn Underhill of Sussex Police, commented: "Text messaging is absolutely fantastic, but we need to increase the number of people who can act as extra eyes and increase even further the chance of saving the child. People normally have their mobile phone with them and registering that phone to receive an alert is something positive that everyone can do to help."

Paul Kent, Managing Director at Community Alerts, commented: "This Service will hopefully create safer, and better informed local communities. If the Community Alerts service is able to save one life, then it's worth everyone in the country registering."

-ends-

About Multimap.com
Multimap.com is Europe's leading provider of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on WAP, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms and in multiple languages.

The public web site www.multimap.com provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of the United Kingdom, Europe and the US; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; weather forecasts; the London Underground map; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. Multimap.com, which was recently voted Best Internet Service in the World Communication Awards 2002, attracts over 4 million unique users every month and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the UK.

About Community Alerts
Community Alerts is the brainchild of the company founder Paul Kent. Paul read "A Mother's Anguish" by Sara Payne and felt compelled to do something. Having worked on projects that involved sending messages to people on mobile phones, he knew there must be a solution. Twelve months later he found a police force that shared his ambitions. Sussex Police has helped to turn the ambition into reality and provide the opportunity to launch a very important service into every community.

Contact: Community Alerts Ltd: Tel: 01342 313222, press@communityalerts.co.uk