Remember being in second period English class and every girl's dream boyfriend Tony was sitting right in front of you when your phone buzzed at max volume for an AMBER alert? He's looking at you, your teacher's lecture was disrupted, and a child has just been unfortunately abducted. Oh my gosh! What do you do? Turn it off, nervously laugh and apologize, gearing everyone's attention - especially his - off your embarrassed face. Wrong. You could be saving a life. Tony can wait.
After the recent use of ADOT alerts to the public regarding the two fugitives in the Red GMC pickup, Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) announced their enhancements to the alert systems on Monday morning.
"We, as law enforcement, know that these alerts have very time-sensitive attachment to them… we have a much bigger resource available with the people of Arizona." Capt. Thomas Neve with the Arizona Department of Public Safety encourages the Arizona public to examine the real need of the alerts, as the work of officers, personnel, and other supervisors is not enough eyes to keep on a certain person that they are looking for.
AMBER Alerts give you a heart attack when first blasting on your phone, totally understandable. However, your almost heart attack isn't nearly serious enough as the incident is addressing.
AZDPS has enhanced the system to one, take into consideration the attention and energy of others before bombarding the public with an excessive amount of alerts and two, address a wider range of immediate emergencies.
"It puts us in compliance with statue," Sgt. Jimmy Chavez spoke about the updates to the AZDPS alert systems, as these enhancements have been thoroughly process for the safety of the public and the best interest of an average resident at heart.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) uses broadcast television and live radio to deliver these messages, so hold your horses when Dancing With The Stars is interrupted for a quick second. Pay attention, for all you know the person they are looking for will cross the same street as you tomorrow on your way to work.
When you're laughing too hard at that non-contextual Drake & Josh clip on Twitter and you receive an alert through the Wireless Alert System (WEA), carefully read the alert (or at least skim it, c'mon) before going back to your feed.
These enhancements are being developed among the three types of alerts that Arizona DPS is responsible for: AMBER, Blue and Silver.
- AMBER Alerts are sent out regarding a child abduction.
- Blue Alerts are dispatched when an attack upon a law enforcement officer takes places.
- Silver Alerts are used to locate missing people that have been previously recorded as having a certain disabilities listed under Arizona DPS criteria.
According to Cpt. Tom Neve, the frequency of having to use these alerts is only about five per year on average for the AMBER Alerts, with only once per year on average for Blue Alerts.
President of the Arizona Broadcasters Association. Chris Kline emphasized, "The messages will also go out instantaneously and digitally which we hope, as we see this start to come into practice, means that these messages will help save lives in a more efficient manner."
All cell phones are registered to receive AMBER and Blue alerts as of right now. All AMBER Alerts will be discharged statewide, will Blue Alerts will depend on regional or statewide delivery upon the circumstance at hand.
So what that means to you is Tony's and your teacher's phones are both going off with yours. Who knows? Maybe you'll ask him for his snapchat just in case you "need the homework in the future" since his phone is already out.
More information can be found here.
