Blue Alert Draft Order Largely Unchanged, Could Be Unanimously Approved
Industry officials expect a unanimous FCC vote Thursday to approve a draft item that would create a new emergency alert system code for law enforcement officers in danger, but they left open the possibility one of the agency’s Democrats could vote against it. Those inside and outside the FCC told us the relatively noncontroversial Blue Alert item isn’t their main focus at a commissioners' meeting that also will feature votes on net neutrality (see 1712130053) and the national broadcast coverage ownership cap (see 1712060051). The draft order hasn’t been the target of many suggested edits and has changed little since being released, an FCC official said.
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The draft would create a new EAS code -- BLU -- to alert communities when law enforcement officers have been attacked and the suspect is at large. Someone who would attack a law enforcement officer is a danger to everyone, said Tom Berry, founder of a Blue Alert nonprofit group that advocates for the warnings. “There’s nothing they wouldn’t do,” he said of criminals that attack officers.
Though some EAS industry commenters argued in comments on the NPRM that existing codes such as LEW (law enforcement warning) could accomplish the same goal (see 1707260031), DOJ and some law enforcement groups said a dedicated code is needed (see 1708290046). “A dedicated event code for Blue Alerts would streamline Blue Alert plans across the nation similar to current Amber alert plans,” said the Arizona Department of Public Safety, posted this week in docket 15-94. Giving Blue Alerts their own event code adds urgency, Berry said, comparing them to Amber Alerts. The FCC and DOJ didn't comment.
If a Democrat objects to the draft order, industry officials said they expect that objection to be based on arguments in the record that the code is unnecessary or could add to alert fatigue. The Republicans are widely expected to support it, and the order was seen as a priority for Chairman Ajit Pai since he first announced the proposal in a joint news conference with Justice (see 1705190048).
The draft order requires EAS manufacturers to implement the alerts in their equipment within 12 months of the order being published in the Federal Register. It also requires implementation of Blue Alerts within 18 months over the wireless EAS as an “imminent threat.”
The Blue Alerts are voluntary, and state EAS bodies would need to adopt the Blue Alert plan to begin using them, said National Alliance of State Broadcaster Associations EAS Committee Chief Suzanne Goucher. It will be “interesting” to see if DOJ lobbies state EAS committees to adopt the codes going forward, she said. The department has supported Blue Alert proposals since legislation in 2015 created the Blue Alert plan. Twenty-eight states have Blue Alert plans already, and will be able to begin using the dedicated code after the FCC’s action, according to the Blue Alert website.
The draft order also contains language that could make it easier for EAS manufacturers to take more advantage of the information-rich alerts provided by the integrated public alert warning system (IPAWS), EAS industry officials said (see 1711220048). A line in the order affirms that EAS equipment can take a few seconds to check for IPAWS alerts even after being triggered by the legacy alert system, which provides less information.