[EAS] BLU Alert Comments.

[Sean Donelan]

On Fri, 4 Aug 2017, Mike McCarthy wrote:
> I think you missed my point. My point is actionable knowledge of the plan
> was gained by law enforcement prior to the offense commission. Those are a
> relatively small percentage of the cases. And an even further subset is
> the fact the knowledge was not able to be spread. IOW, like the Baltimore
> PD not able to alert the NYPD.

We need to be careful not to fall into hindsight is 20/20.

Baltimore County PD and NYPD did communicate before the attack, by 
telephone, by fax and by police NLETS (sometimes called a teletype, but is 
really an electronic data network). With only the information available at 
the time, the situation was a lot more foggy. Reading the post-incident 
reports from both NYPD and Baltimore Co. PD, although there are always 
some opportunities for improvement, the timeline happens quickly. Police 
did a good job of investigating as the incident was unfolding, and tracked 
the attacker within a few hours.

But its also an example of the limitations of a Blue Alert system. It 
still takes time for investigators to connect the dots and notifying the 
appropriate people.

Realistically, I can't pick a specific point in the timeline where I could
say I would have done something different using only the information known 
to the investigators at the time.