[EAS] BLU Alert Comments.

[Sean Donelan]

On Tue, 1 Aug 2017, Mike McCarthy wrote:
> I called BLU and all special interest non-mass effect events Vanity Event
> Codes....for this very reason. The needs of the one out weight the needs
> of the masses.
>
> Now...one needs to take this in the context in which it is presented. I've
> said the same thing about the CAE since it was proposed. The special
> interest is agnostic.

That's where this problem gets difficult.

The Blue Alert may be a special interest code, but there are 
mass-casualty and fugitive incidents where civilians, public safety 
first responders, other officlas are killed or serious;y injuried.  Law 
enforcement may not have been the initial target of the attackers, but 
ancillary or secondary victims.

2015 San Bernardino shootings
2014 Fort Hood shootings (large military bases can now use WEA)
2013 Boston marathon bombing
2013 Christopher Dorner shootings (California Blue Alert)

Even if no law enforcement or government officials had been injuried, some 
type of public warning would be reasonable because the assailants showed 
no sign of stopping or choice of victims. Waiting until a police officer 
is injured or killed before warning the public doesn't make sense.

That's why I'm somewhat agnostic whether there is a new EAS event code or 
uses and existing EAS event code.  Its not if there is a special code, but 
whether officials get enough training and authority about how to warn the 
public about threats to the public (law enforcement and other first 
responders are also members of the public).

The original problem the National Blue Alert law was intended to solve was 
the Baltimore Police Department wasn't able to quickly contact the New 
York City Police Department with a warning message. Most Blue Alerts will 
be treated as "Law Enforcement Sensitive" and never released to the 
public.

Since 2008, there has been 19 public Blue Alerts, which I found with 
Google. That's about 2 per year across 28 states. Not exactly an 
overwhelming number. Law enforcement public information officers are 
primarily trained to control the release of information, not warn the 
public.