Did DPS Ignore Its Own Guidelines With Early Morning Blue Alert?

On Friday, a statewide Blue Alert woke up millions of Texans around 5 a.m. However, the issue of the alert may have not followed the Texas Department of Public Safety’s guidelines.

The DPS told KUT News that a law enforcement agency first has to request the alert, and the department will verify whether the criteria is met.

“The Wireless Emergency Alert activation radius is determined by the requesting law enforcement agency … in this case the Hall County Sheriff’s Office,” DPS said. The guidelines also say that the alerts are set to be sent between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Texans received Friday’s alert at round 5 a.m., warning them of a gunman who shot the police chief of Memphis, Texas. KUT News suggested that DPS appeared to not have followed its own guidelines, as the Alert was sent to all Texans outside of the suggested time window.

“The crazy part was it was eight hours away from here. So it was pretty far away which kind of made me wonder why we’re getting it?” Jordan Stickler, a North Texas resident said of the Alert to CBS News.

“There’s certainly an issue … when communications take place anywhere where the receivers don’t feel that the message was really necessary, and you’re not going to find that in Rhode Island when they send out a statewide message,” Martin Ritchey, head of homeland security for the Capital Area Council of Governments, told KUT. “You will find that in Texas.”

However, he also said it is important for Texas residents to not opt-out of the alerts, as they can receive flood warnings, Amber Alerts and SWAT standoffs.

“We’ve seen firsthand what it looks like when folks don’t get messaged when, you know, folks are in harm’s way,” Ritchey said, “and we want to do whatever we can do to mitigate that.”

The Blue Alert system was established in 2008 and warns Texans when a law enforcement officer is killed or injured.