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Some Colorado counties could lose access to emergency alert system; others haven’t tried to sign up
Posted
November 7, 2023
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336
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November 7, 2023
336
5
1.49%
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3:44Now PlayingIn the hours after a man ran over two parole officers in Colorado Springs, killing one, first responders initiated a statewide manhunt. But it was not just law enforcement carrying out the search.
Cell phones across the state went off at 6:17 p.m. on Sept. 28, with details on a crime that would soon turn deadly. A “Blue Alert” activation instructed Coloradans to look out for 41-year-old Justin Kula.
“Please do not approach vehicle or subject and call 911 if seen,” the alert read.
That message, sent through the federal Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, paid off.
"As a result of the Blue Alert, many community members contacted the Colorado Springs Police Department reporting the location of the suspect vehicle,” Colorado Springs Police spokesperson Ira Cronin said the next day.
Parole officer Christine Guerin Sandoval died in the crash. Another officer was injured but survived. Kula is charged with vehicular homicide.
There are nearly a dozen counties in Colorado where first responders do not have the ability to reach cell phones with that kind of urgent information. In emergency situations like wildfire evacuations, life-threatening flooding, and shelter-in-place orders due to law enforcement activity, those counties must ask the state or a neighboring jurisdiction to send an alert to cell phones on their behalf.
The federal government calls WEA “an essential part of America’s emergency preparedness,” but Colorado will not meet its goal of getting every county in the state access to the system by the end of 2023.
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