CAMPBELL COUNTY, Ky. — Recently neighbors in one Campbell County neighborhood were notified about a man running around with a gun.
Campbell County Emergency Management officials sent an alert to people in the area. But many of them didn’t receive it.
EMA Director William Turner explains that the alert only went to those who opted into Rave Alerts, the emergency alert system used in Campbell County.
“He was considered armed and dangerous,” Turner said.
“(The) police department asked us to send a Rave Alert out, we did," he said. "A lot of people found out they did not get the alert because they had not signed up for the system.”
The system has been in Campbell County for several years. Turner explained it’s similar to Code Red which neighboring counties use.
And it works in conjunction with Smart 911.
Smart 911 allows users to create a profile about their household. You can provide medical conditions for family members, pets in the home and emergency contacts for first responders if you call 911.
Once signed up, users can also see which Rave Alerts they’d like to opt-in to receive.
The alerts include things like emergency notifications, severe and winter weather, shelter-in-place, crime alerts and more.
Turner is urging people to sign up for the alerts. He said they only have about 2,000 people registered of the 93,000 people in Campbell County.
All 22,000 landlines in the county are automatically registered, but Turner said landlines are dwindling.
Turner said they use the system sparingly, only for true emergency items.
He also explained that the system is sophisticated and they can isolate the alerts they send out to specific neighborhoods in the county.
“If someone is boarded up in a house and shooting out at the cops, we can even go in and notify the whole community, but we can block the call going to him,” Turned explained.
The service is free for users and Tuner thinks it's a no-brainer to sign-up.
“The county pays some rather good money for it and citizens should take advantage of the opportunity to sign up,” he said.
Log in to Smart 911 to see which area alerts you are eligible to sign up to receive.
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