NYC used wireless emergency alerts in search for bombing suspect

The city of Phoenix is working on getting access to the wireless alert system that broadcast a description of the suspect in this weekend’s bombings in NY and New Jersey. By sending out an alert like this, which lacks critical context and information, people are left with only their imagination and previous biases to judge who “Ahmad Khan Rahami” might be. They’re limited to 90 characters, CTIA says, and don’t appear to have any way to attach multimedia – hence the advisement to “See media for pic” in the Rahami alert. “Call 9-1-1 if seen”, the notification read.

Since 2012, the U.S. has been using what is known as the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system sending texts to phones in specific areas.

“Alerts from authenticated public safety officials are sent through FEMA’s IPAWS system to participating wireless carriers”. Phone companies push out the message to the geographic areas selected by the authorities by using specific cell towers in that area. It’s different from text messages in a few ways. But once a carrier becomes part of the WEA, it has not control over what alerts go out and when.

– Presidential messages during a national emergency.

-Have we used the system like this before?

Silvestri acknowledged that the system has its limitations – for example, messages can not exceed 90 characters and they can not include photos – and that its use requires weighing the question of whether a message to the public will have an adverse effect, such as creating fear, panic, or profiling. If a lot of cellphone users are present in a confined space, it can get quite noisy. The siren-like sound is probably familiar to anyone in areas that get tornado, hurricane, blizzard or flash flood warnings. He said the system was recently used to notify residents about a water boil order. Never before has it been used on such a scale to notify people to be on the lookout for a wanted suspect.

Officials sent out an emergency alert to the smartphones of those in the New York City area just before 8 a.m. on Monday. Just before the alert, the FBI, New York Police Department and other law enforcement agencies had issued a nation-wide alert asking for help in locating Rahami. One of those bombs went off, injuring 29 people. Eric Phillips, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s press secretary, said this was the first time the system has been used to seek a wanted suspect.

The tone of responses on social media and from various publications has ranged from disgruntled to divisive to downright doomsaying, with many stating how this alert had put them “on edge” or implying that the alert was somehow more alarming than the allegedly terroristic acts themselves.

Not exactly. The alerts themselves may arrive purely in textual form, but that doesn’t mean they’re text messages like the kind you’d send to your friends and family. “When the technology was developed, that was the state of the maximum capacity of the messages, including routing information”, CTIA’s Josef says.