Alert Code for Missing Adults Draws Wide Support

A proposed Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP) emergency alert system code was universally supported in comments from native groups, public safety officials, CTIA and NCTA. Comments were filed in docket 15-94 last week. Some entities differ on how a wireless emergency alert version should be implemented, and on whether an additional code is needed specifically for missing indigenous people. "There is little or no doubt that a dedicated alert code of this type will save lives and will therefore greatly exceed any nationwide implementation costs,” the National Tribal Telecommunications Association (NTTA) said of the MEP code.

All commenters agreed on creating a code (see 2403140050), which is intended to fill a gap between Amber and Silver alerts and also help combat a growing epidemic of missing indigenous people. Native Americans make up 2.5% of all missing person cases despite comprising only 1.2% of the U.S. population, said NTTA. “Implementing a national public alert system for missing and murdered indigenous persons may increase the awareness of the issue, solve cases, and bring missing persons home,” the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence said. Similarly, "the FCC’s proposed rule will help save the lives of MEPs across the United States and Tribal Nations,” FEMA said.

An MEP code would provide improved alerting for missing adults, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, International (APCO) said. “Today, missing and endangered person incidents that do not meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert are transmitted under a variety of event codes,” APCO said. The MEP code “will facilitate consistency” and “the rapid and coordinated delivery of alert notifications about missing and endangered persons to the public in a uniform manner.” ACA Connects and NTCA in a joint filing said they support the proposal that lets stations use the code on a voluntary basis.

Some native groups said the FCC should create a code that specifies a missing or endangered indigenous person, in addition to the MEP code, or name the MEP code in a way that identifies it with indigenous people. “Failing to explicitly name the alert for indigenous individuals risks misalignment with the intended purpose of serving the AI/AN [American Indian and Alaska Native] population and could lead to the system being used for other purposes,” said Native Public Media, the group that petitioned the FCC to create the MEP code. A dedicated code for missing and murdered indigenous people would improve communication of critical details and alert people to the broader crisis, The Southern Ute Indian Tribe said.

“I fail to see a benefit from fragmentation” of the MEP code’s role in creating greater consistency in alerting “by establishing one or more separate Event Codes reserved to support individual groups,” said Al Kenyon, who filed comments as a citizen but also serves as customer support branch chief for FEMA's Integrated Public Alert Warning System. FEMA said it deferred to native groups on the matter. Kenyon also worried that separate MEP codes could “have an overall negative effect on EAS message distribution to the public by effectively enabling racial bias through EAS device filter setting.”

Several groups said the FCC should accompany creation of the MEP code with outreach to native groups and public safety officials. The agency’s Office of Native Affairs and Policy should contact tribes and encourage them to become IPAWS Alerting Authorities in their respective jurisdictions, said Native Public Media. Tribes originating alerts could be “a powerful tool” for saving indigenous lives, NPM said. NCTA said the agency should work with state, local and tribal officials to establish clear guidelines for MEP code use. “Issuance of MEP alerts in non-emergency situations or without sufficient information for the public to assist in recovery efforts risks desensitizing the public to the significance of emergency alerts,” NCTA said.

The FCC also asked about sending MEP alerts as WEAs, and commenters in the docket disagreed about classifying an eventual wireless MEP alert. WEA alerts are differentiated by severity to allow recipients to opt out of lower urgency alerts if they choose. The four alert classes are: National Alert, Imminent Threat, Amber Alert and Public Safety Message. A new class solely for MEP would be “helpful” but must balance against the risk of making alerting more complicated, APCO said. A unique class for MEP “would help eliminate confusion” for alerting authorities, FEMA noted.

Mapping the MEP alert onto an existing WEA class like Amber alerts would allow for much quicker implementation, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions said. “This option is available today from a WEA perspective,” ATIS said. Creating a class for MEP warnings would require “end-to-end modifications of the alerting stakeholder communications chain” and would take 36-54 months, ATIS said. The FCC used an existing class for other recent WEA additions, such as the Blue Alert, and should classify MEP as a public safety message, CTIA said. “Using an existing alert class to implement any MEP alert will help to avoid costly changes and potential backwards compatibility issues,” CTIA said.