Centre County has a system to send emergency alerts, but most people aren’t receiving them
Centre County has a free mass notification system available to all of its residents, but only about six percent of the county’s population is signed up to receive the emergency alerts.
There was one CodeRED alert sent in 2018, and no alert was sent during the Jan. 24 shootings in State College that left four people dead.
The county’s Emergency Communications Center discussed the parameters of an emergency alert message during the shootings, but Director Dale Neff said a message wasn’t sent because the incident ended so quickly.
“We, during that event, had discussions about putting a message together so, if we got the go-ahead, we were ready to launch the information, but that event ended so quickly, there wasn’t really time,” Neff said. “If a suspect was on the loose and there was a safety in the community issue, there would have been a CodeRED.”
Introduced in Centre County in 2003, CodeRED is used to alert the public about “high level situations or incidents that may impact (residents’) safety.” County Administrator Margaret Gray said the county spends $9,500 per year on minutes, which accrue if they are not used.
Residents have to opt in to system
When the system launched, Neff said it primarily worked as a reverse 911 system because most residents had landline phones, were part of a database and received a call even if they didn’t specifically sign up. Now, only about 20-25 percent of the caller population uses a landline phone.
Cellphone users — about 75-80 percent of the current population — have to opt in and provide their information or download the CodeRED app to receive alerts. Those without phone reception or internet connectivity could miss out on the alerts, according to Neff.
“Especially as individuals more and more get their news and rely on their smartphones and technology to get the latest, it makes sense for us to position ourselves and be prepared to push notifications out and to push alerts out on those devices. We’re aligning ourselves to appreciate the fact that that’s where folks are going to get their alerts and updates from,” Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Pipe said.
Out of a county of about 162,000 people, Gray said about 10,548 phone numbers — 9,010 residents — are enrolled in the system. Another 1,586 businesses are also enrolled and there may be an unknown number of CodeRED app users who receive alerts as they travel through the county.
“It doesn’t do much good if our audience is small,” Neff said. “We’re all trying to figure out ways how we can promote CodeRED participation so that when we have an emergency we can reach out to a meaningful number of people.”
Who decides when to send an alert?
The need for an emergency alert must be communicated by an incident commander, like a local emergency management coordinator, Penn State University Emergency Agency — which is one of the county’s 29 CodeRED partners — or a police, fire or EMS representative.
Once the need for an alert is established, the incident commander sends the message to an emergency communications shift supervisor, who finalizes the format and sends the alert.
“Law enforcement, it’s a tough call that they have to make — when to alert folks. They never want to put an alert out there that causes more concern until they’re doubly sure,” Pipe said. “I can recognize that it’s a challenge, but I think CodeRED can be a good piece in that to put out accurate, factual information about when emergencies are occurring in Centre County.”
Neff said an alert can typically be sent out in less than 10 minutes, though the decision is based on the situation.
Under different circumstances, Neff said CodeRED would have been activated on Jan. 24.
“Had that active shooter not, say, been apprehended so quickly and was loose in the community, then by all means that would have been a reason to activate CodeRED,” Neff said. “However, that decision would come from the incident commander, which would have been a State College police representative.”
State College police Chief John Gardner previously said there was “no way” for the department to publish a warning during the hour-long incident.
Although it wasn’t used during the last two “shooting incidents” — the State College shootings and a suicide attempt in Tudek Park, Ferguson Township — Neff said CodeRED is a valuable tool to quickly get a message out to the community.
“I can foresee that it’s going to be used more now than it was in the past 20 years. It’s a tool that we’re going to have to rely on to get the word out,” Neff said. “We’ve had two shooting incidents in the past few months and in situations like that, the community is asking to be notified when things like this happen. I think this is one of the tools we can use to accomplish that.”
Challenges to growth
Pipe said the main way for the county to communicate information is through the press, but said CodeRED’s growth will come through “partnerships with with everybody here in the community,” including local government, the private sector and nonprofits.
“It’s everybody where we can let them know that this platform exists because I think that’s one of the things that we can do more of — to let them know that CodeRED is an excellent thing to have signed up for,” Pipe said. “That’s the key to it — adoption and implementation.”
Part of the issue, according to Neff, is OnSolve’s — the company that owns CodeRED — marketing plan. He said the company relies on subscribing agencies, like Centre County, to promote the product.
That marketing effort, however, is standard operating procedure, according to OnSolve General Manager Troy Harper. He said OnSolve spends “quite a bit of time” working with the county on best marketing practices.
“It’s not actually our responsibility. It’s a local issue. It’s a local service that’s provided. We simply provide, as part of our offering, best tools,” Harper said. “Centre County’s had a pretty good opt-in rate — got over 10,000. That’s slightly above national average based on household counts, population and other demographics.”
TV, radio and newspaper advertisement are among the standard marketing procedures, along with press releases. Another approach is to insert an ad in a resident’s utility bill.
“Centre County’s not doing anything out of the normal across the country. They’re doing a very good job of getting people to participate,” Harper said. “The challenge is this — how do you get people to sign up on a blue sky day when nothing’s happening? We’ve seen this in all the large fires and all the recent winter storms and all the hurricanes in the last many years. We watch enrollment rates go up 10 fold the day of the impact — the day after the impact.”
Thirty-four residents signed up for email, text or phone alerts since the day of the shootings, along with five business, according to OnSolve.
Anyone interested in signing up can do so online, by calling the county’s 911 office at 355-6800 or by downloading the CodeRED app.