[EAS] Nevada Silver Alert

[WSAB]

The concern about using EAS for Blue Alert is that once a person has killed
or severely injured a police officer and is fleeing the last thing we want
to do is have broadcasters encouraging unarmed/untrained civilians to go
running around trying to track this person down because he wouldn't think
twice about trying to kill them, too.  For that reason, we had the prime
sponsor of the bill add language immunizing broadcasters from liability for
any harm caused by the issuance of Blue Alert information, very similar to
the language that most states have relating to AMBER Alert immunity for
stations.  I have a pretty good idea that many in law enforcement would
actually like to tone down the coverage that these kinds of events get, not
ramp it up.

Mark Allen, Esq.
President & CEO
Washington State Association of Broadcasters
724 Columbia Street N. W., Suite 3190
Olympia, WA  98501
P:  (360) 705-0774
F:  (360) 705-0873
www.wsab.org
wa-broadcasters at earthlink.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of Adrienne Abbott

I could certainly support the use of EAS for a "Blue Alert" because anyone
who would shoot or otherwise harm a cop is a danger to the public. However,
such legislation has not been proposed here. You could even say the FCC
already has a code for such activations: LEW or Law Enforcement Warning was
one of the codes added with CAE.
Adrienne

"Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN 

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of WSAB

Several years ago we had a state Senator who wanted to create a Silver Alert
in response to a problem one of his constituents had.  We worked with him to
shape the bill into the same kind of umbrella alert advisory that Utah
pioneered, the Endangered Missing Person Advisory Plan.  It does not use
EAS.  The Senator was quite willing to expand the concept because he was
also concerned about autistic kids and others who were missing and needed
assistance.  The bill itself did not contain the Plan, but simply authorized
the State Patrol to develop the Plan and adopt it.  The AMBER Alert Advisory
Committee, of which I'm Chair, drafted the Plan and submitted it to the
Patrol and it was adopted about a year ago.  The Plan itself aggregates all
of the existing (non-EAS) press and other outreach resources that law
enforcement has to assist in locating a missing person who does not qualify
for an AMBER Alert.

We also dealt with a Blue Alert bill this session.  Working with the prime
sponsor over our concerns about using EAS, he was quite willing to have any
Blue Alert not use EAS.  The bill is, however, dead.  In both of these
cases, the State Patrol and the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police
Chiefs were very much on our side and advocated with us to keep these bills
in proper order.  If anything, in Washington law enforcement and state
emergency management are even more protective than broadcasters of using EAS
only for AMBER Alerts when it comes to missing persons.

Mark Allen, Esq.
President & CEO
Washington State Association of Broadcasters
724 Columbia Street N. W., Suite 3190
Olympia, WA  98501
P:  (360) 705-0774
F:  (360) 705-0873
www.wsab.org
wa-broadcasters at earthlink.net 

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