Texans Mad About Middle-of-the-Night “Blue Alert” to Cell Phones
The more well-known Amber Alerts have probably interrupted more slumber than sleep apnea.
They’re something we’ve all come to accept because 1.) you can’t opt out and 2.) if they save even one abducted child it’s worth it, I guess.
However, thousands of Texans have complained to the FCC about a “blue alert” that went out early Friday morning at around 4 a.m. Blue alerts are sent when a person who killed or injured a police officer is on the loose. The FCC says they received about 4,000 complaints from Texans saying, “Enough with alerts during sleep hours”.
The alert was sent out by the Hall County (population: under 3,000) Sheriff’s office.
The alert was for Seth Altman, a “33-year-old white male wearing a blue shirt and jeans”.
That description doesn’t really narrow it down in most places in Texas. And some places in Texas are over 800 miles away from Hall County. Here’s the best-disgruntled post on X/Twitter about the rude awaking:
“@TxDPS I am begging you to stop sending blue alerts in the middle of the night. I’m sleeping. I will not find the bad guy at 4 am. I am not Batman”
The response from Texas DPS was basically, “tough”.
“We would like to remind the public that Blue Alerts are urgent public safety warnings…They are designed to speed up the apprehension of violent criminals who kill or seriously wound…officers.”
Some complaints even said the blare of the alert was even louder than a regular Amber Alert. Some said that multiple devices (phone, watch, pad) ALL went off at the same time, essentially waking the entire house. I’ve heard that there is a way to at least silence alerts (I don’t know how) but some reported that the alarm sounded even when it was supposed to be silenced.
Again, Amber Alerts MAY save an abducted child (even though most of those are taken by one of the parents.” Silver Alerts may help find an elderly person who’s missing.
My main concern is that if too many alerts are being sent out, no one will pay attention to one even when the danger is nearby and imminent. It’s like car alarms. They go off so often that people just quit noticing them.