It’s a common occurrence over the past few months: Phones suddenly light up and a siren blares, indicating there’s some kind of emergency nearby.
But the problem is, the emergency isn’t necessarily nearby.
First responders in Spokane County have made increased requests to use the Spokane County Emergency Management alert systems, but glitches in the federal system that allows alerts to be geographically targeted to people’s cellphones have caused confusion. The department plans to limit use of the system until it can research and solve the problems and instead rely on a sign-up system called ALERT Spokane.
In 2016, Spokane County Emergency Management purchased CodeRED, a system that allows them to send emergency alerts, said Simone Ramel-McKay, program specialist at the department.