Hundreds of people have taken to social media to share their collective anger — and to announce that they’ve turned off their phone’s public safety alerts — over a 4:52 a.m. Blue Alert on Friday, which sent a piercing alarm to the roughly 30 million people who live in Texas (and hadn’t already opted out). According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, such notifications are “designed to speed in the apprehension of violent criminals who kill or seriously wound local, state, or federal law enforcement officers.”
The alert said that 33-year-old Seth Altman was sought in connection to the shooting of a police chief in Hall County (that’s in the panhandle). Altman was described as a white man with red hair and blue eyes, measuring 6’2” and weighing 220 lbs.
He was last seen at 11 p.m. on Thursday night in Memphis, Texas, about 85 miles Southeast of Amarillo. Local ABC affiliate KVII reported Memphis Police Chief Rex Plant was recovering from gunshots, and in stable condition, at a hospital in Lubbock, where he was air-lifted after the shooting. Plant and another officer had gone to the Memphis Housing Authority to serve a warrant for Altman’s arrest on a burglary charge, according to police. When Plant approached the back door, Altman allegedly pulled out a weapon and shot Plant multiple times, KVII reported. Altman purportedly took off running, and police have been searching for him since.
But many Texans, while understanding the urgency of catching a wanted — and allegedly violent — man, were frustrated by the use of the alert system. And not just because they were awoken before dawn.
“So… what are we supposed to DO with half-assed details? Hundreds of miles away. Asleep,” wrote one user on the Threads social media app. Others wondered why the entire state was alerted when Houstonians are more than 500 miles away and Oklahoma City, for example, is 300 miles closer.
“I really don’t want to turn off public safety and emergency alerts, but Texas lovessss to send a Blue Alert at FIVE AM, for an injury that happened almost eight hours away from me!!” another Threads user posted.
“.@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 4am. I am not Batman,” another user posted on X (formerly Twitter).
According to the state, there are four criteria an agency must meet in order to active the Blue Alert: a law enforcement officer must have been killed or seriously injured by an offender; the investigating law enforcement agency must determine that the offender poses a serious risk or threat to the public and other law enforcement personnel; they must have a detailed description of the suspect’s vehicle, vehicle tag, or partial tag and must be available for broadcast to the public; additionally, the investigating law enforcement agency of jurisdiction must recommend activation of the Blue Alert to the Texas DPS.
According to Google trends, there was a giant spike of people searching “blue alerts” and “how to turn off blue alerts” in the moments after the alert went out.
Davina Sashkin, an attorney who represents broadcast clients and specializes in laws related to the Federal Communications Commission, took to Threads, writing that her clients “get fines for airing false emergency alerts, and one of the rationales is concern about alert fatigue. But then we have authorities who are able to geo-target phone alerts but don’t, so people turn off the alerts. It undermines the whole thing and makes me crazy.”
Sashkin told The Barbed Wire via email that Fox networks recently got a fine from the commission for $504,000 for false emergency alert system tones during an NFL program.
