[EAS] BLU Alert Comments.

[Ed Czarnecki]

Dave - I'm not sure about that - at lest I hope not!

I certainly hope that - at a minimum - people would not feel against to engaging in a public discussion of operational costs and requirements  - to give the Commission a better grounding on what changes like this may entail in broadcast and cable plant.

Whether for or against Blue Alerts, there needs to be a careful examination of the costs and benefits - and whether there may be a different approach to the same obective than what is presented in the NPRM.

FWIW, NYC filed its comments today - among other things agreeing on a 6 month implementation timeline, and desiring to change a BLU alert to be **mandatory** so that broadcasters have no discretion on whether air the alert.  NYC also seeks to extend the scope of Blue Alerts to any uniformed personnel - beyond law enforcement.  I am not surprised by NYC's comments (actually, I am surprised they did not go further).  

Also, as you mentioned "paying" below, NYC did mention how much they pay to outfit and train LE personnel in their cost-benefit analysis.  They concur with the Commission's esimate of $3.6 million of implementation costs (which BTW, does not factor in any EAS manufacturer development or support costs, nor does it include any estimate of EAS originator costs).  

On Tue, Aug 1, 2017 at 2:39 PM, Dave Kline <dkline at tvmail.unomaha.edu> wrote:
>Is the Blue Alert turning into to one of those things that organizations won't speak out against because the inference is that anyone who is against it is anti-law enforcement? Perhaps all of these "groups" that want all the colors of rainbow ingested into our warning systems should consider paying for those systems, rather than putting the financial burden on the stations.

>----------------------------------------
>Dave Kline   UNO-TV/Mav Radio/KVNO
>University of Nebraska at Omaha
>6001 Dodge St. Omaha, NE  68182  CPACS 200
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>On Aug 1, 2017, at 12:12 PM, Ed Czarnecki wrote:

>>BTW, the Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority just filed its comment, noting full support for a new dedicated Blue Alert code, but also its opinion that no national framework (guidelines) for issuing Blue Alerts is needed ... and that Blue Alerts should go beyond law enforcement, to include all uniformed first responders (police, fire, paramedic...).

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