BOLO... for what? This is why people opt out.

One of the advantages of Wireless Emergency Alerts is their ability to alert people, without requiring them to opt in, and to do so in a very disruptive manner. The sound of a WEA is loud, harsh, and designed to capture the attention of people - even those who may be sleeping. This suggests that the alerts that are issued should rise to the level of severity and urgency that those receiving the message need to take immediate action to protect themselves. When this is not the case, alerting authorities are going to run the risk of their constituents being rather annoyed and, in some cases, downright angry.

This past weekend, Island County Sheriff's Office (an office that spans two, unconnected islands in the Pacific Northwest) issued a WEA at 8:15PM for a rather undefined situation about a "suspect" who wasn't well described. As you can see from the message below, the message includes a source (Island County Sheriff's Office), a hazard (kind of ... there is a "suspect"), and protective actions (if spotted please call). What is missing is a clear description of the location and an indication of what kind of threat this person represents.

An original public safety message for a suspect on the loose.

One might assume that if they are being disturbed at night by a WEA, the person who is being sought must represent someone who is dangerous. In the case of this WEA, there no guidance to stay indoors, lock doors and windows, or wait for information from the sheriff. But equally problematic is the lack of information about the location where this suspect was last seen, which would help to eliminate 98% of Whidbey Island and all of Camano island.

Yikes. That's a real oversight.

In the revised message we offer a few edits to help answer some of these questions. For instance, we provide information about the suspect being dangerous to help people understand why they are being alerted late at night. We add specific location information to help personalize the information and eliminate concerns from the other 98% of Island County residents. We include the time when the suspect was last seen to create greater specificity. And we add a protective action of "stay indoors" for all who are in the area. We use ALL CAPS to help draw attention to the key elements of the message (DANGEROUS PERSON and STAY INDOORS).

A revised public safety alert

Unfortunately, the description of the suspect lacks precision, which, in an urban area during daytime hours could make it difficult to help spot them. Given that Useless Bay is pretty rural and this alert was sent in nearly the middle of the night, it may suffice. We did look for additional details about this suspect by searching Whidbey Island news and checking the Island County Sheriff's Office social media and webpages. We didn't find any additional details that would help to explain why this message was sent.

At 9:15PM a cancellation message was sent to Island County to let them know that the suspect was found.

A public safety alert cancelling the be on the lookout message

Note that The Warn Room learned about this message when the editor was tagged in a social media post by a frustrated message receiver. Public complaints about WEAs are a common occurrence when they lack geographical precision, are not complete, issued at a time of day when it is difficult to take action - especially at night, and are not perceived to be relevant by the message receiver. The WEA alert sound compounds things, making the experience far worse. The messaging aspects in this WEA issued by the Island County Sheriff's Office represent the conditions that routinely lead people to say they are going to, or have now chosen to, opt out of future WEAs.

There are solutions, if message writers are willing to consider them. Here are just a few:

1. Follow the evidence based guidance that informs the Warning Lexicon contents and style.

2. Use the Message Design Dashboard to help write these messages.

3. Establish a policy to issued COMPLETE and ACTIONABLE messages

4. Identify policy for what and when conditions reach a level of severity and urgency requiring the issuance of WEAs

5. Use precise geo-location and include location information in all messages

For more recommended contents, be sure to download The Warning Lexicon - it's free and offers step-by-step instructions on how to write a better warning message.

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