Saint John emergency alert texts delayed for some residents, filtered out for others
Some people received late warnings or none at all after 2 shootings in May, documents reveal
The City of Saint John says it's updating its emergency alert text-notification system after an undisclosed number of residents received late shelter-in-place warnings about two recent shootings, and some didn't get the warnings at all.
System overload and the filtering done by some mobile service providers are to blame, according to city spokesperson Erin White.
"Some mobility service providers will filter out messages for various reasons," she said in an emailed statement.
"We are working through a process to resolve both issues (delay and filtering) and will be testing the system this summer to test its reliability."
City officials thought it was "a fluke" at first when they noticed a "20-30 minute delay" in the May 7 advisory sent to text subscribers after a man reported being shot while walking at Rockwood Park, documents obtained through a Right to Information Act request reveal.
Email and voicemail subscribers, meanwhile, were warned shortly before 9 p.m. — "in a timely fashion," according to an internal email from communications officer Sarah Peiser — to avoid certain areas, including Rockwood Park.
"[Residents] please shelter in place. One person shot, suspect has not been identified or located. Police on scene. More information will follow," the warning said. It was lifted at 11:35 p.m., after a woman was arrested and a man was in hospital in critical condition.
On May 13, the city again asked people to shelter in place while police searched for suspects after a fatal shooting uptown. Officials realized there was "a delay again with texts," Peiser told the city's information technology service desk in the email marked "high" importance.
"We (unfortunately) are using the emergency alert function more and more … to communicate timely updates with the community," she wrote.
"Could we please get someone to take a look at this ASAP?"
Used by city and its EMO
The city and the Saint John Emergency Measures Organization use text, email and voicemail notifications to "broadly communicate urgent public notices" to subscribers — everything from city-wide boil water advisories, to spring flooding and major snowstorms, to incidents at the refinery and police warnings.
These alerts are different from the national Alert Ready notifications that sound on radios, televisions and smartphones.
The Alert Ready notifications are issued by the New Brunswick RCMP when requested by the Saint John police or Saint John EMO and can take time. These agencies may need to respond to a call, assess the situation and gather credible information before issuing an alert.
Saint John police did request an Alert Ready for the uptown shooting, after they found a 20-year-old man dead in a vehicle in a parking lot near King's Square, had three suspects captured on video and not enough information to rule out a risk to public safety.
That alert sounded at 12:39 p.m., once police had descriptions of the suspects, but the city issued a separate alert at 3:27 p.m. as the police search extended to the city's west side. "URGENT: Clover Court Westside — current police operation underway. Residents are requested to shelter in place. Please avoid the area."
Text subscribers of the city service didn't receive that warning until 3:48 p.m., internal emails show.
Phone number has 'limited capacities'
It was a "significant delay," Dave Wu, a solutions integration specialist with the city's information technology department said in response to Peiser's email.
It was caused by the phone number the city uses, which has limited capacity, Wu said. The city might need to switch to a business number after confirming the cost with the provider, he said.
And "we need to discuss the changes with the website vendor to make sure it can be a smooth transition without losing our subscribers or causing any confusions to the public," he wrote on May 14.
Wu expected "the whole process might take a while."
Peiser alerted the city's director of external relations, Lisa Kennedy. "Wanted to keep you in the loop here — as we drive more people to sign up for alerts, we're limited in the amount of texts that can be sent at once.
"For your consideration if this upgrade should be higher priority."
Less than an hour later, the city issued a public service announcement, encouraging more people to sign up for emergency alert notifications via text, email and/or voicemail messages.
'Subset' of text subscribers affected
The number of text-alert subscribers has since jumped to 2,984 from 1,235, according to the city spokesperson Erin White.
She did not say what, if any impact the extra volume is expected to have on delays for any future alerts, pending the updates.
It was "a subset" of the text subscribers who experienced the delayed alerts, said White.
She did not say how many, but fellow spokesperson Kennedy noted "police had already secured the affected areas."
In addition, some of the people who received delayed text warnings would have received timely alerts via email or voicemail if they were registered for those modes of notification as well.
It's unclear how many text subscribers received no warnings at all because of the mobile carrier filtering.
Triggered system review, mayor says
Mayor Donna Reardon said she was unaware of any lag with alerts before being contacted by CBC News and hasn't heard any concerns from citizens, despite numerous complaints posted on social media.
She said she was also unaware of any upgrades underway. City staff advised her that the text delays have triggered a review of the entire emergency alert notification system.
"We need to make sure that it's working properly and we need to make sure that that information is getting out instantaneously if we're going to put it out," Reardon said.
"So I'm happy with that, to have this system review to figure out what is the holdup."
Reardon said she's not overly concerned about the delays, describing the city's emergency alert system as a "complementary, supplementary service" to Alert Ready notifications.
"We don't want a delay, but for anything that's critical, I would think the Province of New Brunswick alert system would be part of that," she said.
No word on timeline but cost covered
The city said it's updating to a higher-throughput number, so text messages flow faster during heavy traffic.
This will "significantly increase the number of texts that can be sent per second, ensuring that subscribers receive the message within minutes," said White.
The city is also "switching to a verified number to help address the issue of carriers filtering our alerts," she said.
City spokespersons did not respond to questions about how long the upgrades will take. As for cost, they said it fits within the existing operating budget.
"The city allocates funds for emergency communications, and this expense will be covered under the budget with no requirement to cut from other areas/services," White said in an emailed statement. "The cost is approximately $400 per month."
The city is working to transfer all subscribers to the new number without interrupting service, Kennedy said.
In the meantime, the city encourages citizens to sign up to receive text, email and voicemail emergency alert notifications to ensure "built-in redundancy," and to follow the city on social media.
Emergency alert subscribers are also encouraged to contact their wireless provider to determine if they're unable to receive text alerts.