EAS Officials Conflicted on Two-Way Communication Possibilities
Emergency alert system officials are conflicted about the possibilities of giving electronic messaging and social media an increased role in emergency alerting, according to panelists at an FCC EAS workshop Thursday. There are ways to use multimedia to get information to the public and get information from the public, said Jay English, APCO director-communications center and 911 service. Combining EAS and wireless messages and social media makes Maine Association of Broadcasters CEO Suzanne Goucher “very nervous,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of serious top-level questions” to answer before such changes are implemented, Goucher said.
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Improving technology and IP convergence could allow the delivery of more alerts to an increasing variety of devices, and allow emergency responders to take better advantage of information flowing from an emergency event though devices and social media, said Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson at the workshop. Gathering information back from the scene of an incident, such as by monitoring social media, can let emergency professionals “triage” an incident, which could decrease response time, saving lives, English said.
Goucher said she's concerned that decisions on when to use the EAS system aren’t made lightly and are made by the right personnel. Speaking from the audience, CTIA Assistant Vice President Brian Josef said it's important not to “inundate” people with emergency alerts on their devices, to prevent the capability from being disregarded, which he called “car alarm syndrome.” Monitoring social media and taking information in a variety of formats from a variety of sources could also be a problem for 911 operators, said Fairfax County, Virginia, Department of Public Safety Director Stephen Souder. “We have to make sure not to overwhelm the call taker.” Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Wade Witmer said IPAWS doesn’t dictate to localities when they can use the system to send wireless alerts: “I don’t think we can define that sitting here in the bubble that is Washington, D.C.”
It's “essential” that the text displayed in emergency alerts match the audio, said National Association of the Deaf Policy Counsel Zainab Alkebsi. Without synchronicity between the text and audio, the hearing impaired are “at a serious disadvantage,” she said. Broadcasters should work “hand-in-hand” with the deaf communities in their particular geographic location to create solutions, Alkebsi said. Moving forward with using technology and next-generation 911 to enable two-way communication with EAS officials is also problematic for the hearing impaired, said Christian Vogler, director of Gallaudet University’s Technology Access Program. “If I’m deaf and I see something that is happening, how do I communicate with services? That has been a struggle.” Vogler said video communication is a possibility, but raises concerns about the safety of 911 operators who then are recognizable to callers. That issue has prevented some public safety answering points from using video technology to communicate with the hard of hearing, he said.
Rules governing emergency alert systems have to evolve to address these issues, said Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief Lisa Fowlkes. “The FCC can’t do this by itself.”