Using WEA For «Endangered» Missing Children

[Carri Gordon]

I recently found out there is a county in our state using WEA for missing endangered children and sending text descriptors only. I put «endangered» in quotes because the definition they are using to distinguish these is pretty loose and interpreted at the local law enforcement level. These are cases where there is NO vehicle and the criteria for AMBER is not met for a variety of reasons. They are not imbedding hyperlinks just sending out text with physical descriptors. I found out about this because of a call from the public letting me know that they were disabling ALL alert notifications because of their perceived overuse of the system. In discussion with the Emergency Management agency activating these they are advising they were never told the system was «forbidden» to be used for these types of messages and wanted some input/clarification. Our State SECC will be meeting next month to discuss this topic but I wanted to get some feedback from you all prior to that meeting. Thank you all in advance for any input/feedback you have for me. At this point in time our state AMBER Plan only authorizes the alert for WEA with vehicle information and it is NOT used for Silver or Blue Alerts as a matter of rule within our state plans.

[Brian Frost]

Yikes! That’s an interesting predicament. In Montana, we have a Missing Endangered Person Advisory (MEPA) at the state level which serves as a «catch all» for Silver/Ashanti/etc. We DO NOT utilize WEA for MEPAs but we do use WEA for AMBER and Blue Alerts. For dissemination, we leave it up to our AMBER Alert partners on whether or not they will share our MEPAs. Most of our partners choose not to share MEPAs (like the Lottery and Department of Transportation) but the Weather Service and the Montana Public Broadcasters Association are probably the largest distributors of the information in the event of a MEPA activation.

My personal opinion, we’re on track to have nearly 100 MEPA’s this year. I strongly believe if we were using WEA for these, alert fatigue would certainly be an issue. I believe, at the national level, Ashanti Alerts are not supposed to be utilizing WEA.

[Bonnie Feller Hagen]

I know that some states use WEA for other than Amber Alerts. I have kind of mixed feeling about that usage of WEA for EMA’s because our state, South Dakota, has a very low volume of Amber Alerts (one every few years) and we are fortunate not to have complaints from the public about overuse of the WEA system. We do several Endangered Missing Advisories a year and have been questioned why we do not utilize the WEA for those EMA advisories. In one case a couple of years ago an elderly female that we had an Endangered Missing Advisory on in South Dakota was recovered alive in North Dakota because they activated on behalf of South Dakota and they do use the WEA on their Silver Alerts and it directly led to her safe recovery in North Dakota. I have had discussions with surrounding states about using EMA’s for other than Amber Alerts and I think population and volume of alerts are the deciding factor on whether they are in favor of that usage or not. (states with a high volume of alerts generally say no and states with a low volume of alerts are more in favor of this usage.) Personnally, I would support using EMA’s on a case by case basis but not on all Endangered Missing Advisories.
South Dakota has three alerting plans, Amber Alert, Endangered Missing Advisory (all ages and a wide variety of endangering factors) which both use DOJ recommended criteria and our third plan is a Blue Alert.

[Rachel Salter]

In Alabama, we ONLY send out a WEA message through EAS/IPAWS for AMBER and Blue Alerts, which hits all phones in the State (unless the cell customer has turned the alerts off).

However, Alabama does send out a WEA message through CodeRED to notify the public of Emergency Missing Child and Missing & Endangered Person Alerts. Persons wishing to receive these messages (EMCA and MEPA) must subscribe through CodeRED. When subscribing, the person has the option to choose how to receive the message; by text, email, and/or through the CodeRED app. This way only persons who have subscribed will receive these messages.

In the past, a county EMA office sent out what they called an AMBER Alert when the circumstances did not meet the criteria for an alert. When that happened, the State EMA office asked the County EMA’s to stop sending out missing person messages without first contacting the clearinghouse for confirmation. The message area for each EMCA/MEPA is decided according to the circumstances of the disappearance. Such as, if an elderly person or child walked away from an area, we generally only send out the message to that area. If the person or child is in a vehicle, then the message is sent out statewide. Very few counties in Alabama have a messaging system to use, and the ones that do use Everbridge. In addition, the message is sent to the Alabama Broadcasters Association who in turn makes sure all media outlets in the state receive the message.

In 2020, Alabama issued 6 AMBER Alerts (which is more than normal) and 1 Blue Alert through the EAS/IPAWS WEA messaging. However, we issued 48 Missing & Endangered Person Alerts and 24 Emergency Missing Child Alerts.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our process (I may have made it sound confusing!), please don’t hesitate to give me a call.

Lesia Baldwin
AMBER Alert Coordinator
(334) 517-2677

[Anónimo]

In Oklahoma we use WEA for Amber and Blue Alerts. If we have missing children who we believe based on the investigation are in danger then we have used WEA 2-3 times a year but it is targeted to the county where the child is missing. The Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security is the entity we utilize to perform these targeted alerts using WEA. In every situation the targeted WEA led to the safe return of the child or children. In our conversations with OEMHS we did discuss over use of the WEA and have not sent a non-Amber WEA between the hours of 10pm-7am.

Major Ronnie Hampton
Oklahoma Highway Patrol

[William Smith]

Carrie,
I am late to the party but figured some input I had could be handy. I would simply refer to the Code of Federal Regulations that authorizes the FCC to implement WEA. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-10?toc=1

It is actually very specific on what can legally be distributed via WEA in 10.400 of the CFR. What you describe is pretty far from that and could get their FEMA authorization for IPAWS WEA pulled by a FCC regulator.

[Ed Bertola]

First, It is so important for all counties and agencies to be on the same page with their coordinator to prevent confusion. Public trust takes time to build and can be lost very quickly.

In California we can and often do use WEAs for all of our alerts. We are in compliance with all FCC, FEMA, and IPAWS guidelines and have a great relationship working with each of those partners. Every WEA we send out has a hyperlink the public can use to access actionable information. California is very aware of the potential for the oversaturation and overuse of these powerful alerts. That is why we have led the charge to narrow areas of activation of the WEA through geographic targeting with each alert. I probably have over one-hundred examples of how this can be done in an effective way without upsetting the apple cart as they say. Our relationship with the public, media, and law enforcement partners has never been better. Just in September, we have used the WEA many many times with AMBER Alerts, Silver Alerts, and Endangered Missing Advisories (Ashanti Compliant). If you have heard me teach on this subject, I know I can sound like a broken record, but it works, it works, it works.

I think the bigger question to be resolved is how is the WEA being used, rather than if it is being used. Addressing that question is the most important. The WEA with a hyperlink to actionable information to members of the public in a geographically specific area has been the greatest development for the alert programs to date. It takes planning, practice, and coordination with your partners, but worth every effort.

[Autor]

Entradas