25 July 2023
SEDGWICK COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) — On Tuesday, Sedgwick County Emergency Management (SCEM) sent a ‘public safety alert’ with its Civic Ready Alerts system.
This is the first time the county has sent out a public safety alert, but the system has been used for other community messages.
About 1,900 people got Tuesday’s message.
The first alert said police were working an “active threat at 12th and Woodrow” and advised people to avoid the area or shelter in place.
When the threat was cleared, another message was sent stating it was resolved.
Emergency Management said with this being the first public safety alert sent out, a lot of phone calls came into the non-emergency line because people received a missed call and a voicemail.
“We’re working on a way to maybe eliminate that in the future, but for now, until we get that fix in place with maybe a pre-recorded line that’s dedicated to just callbacks for that. Until we can get that in place, we need folks, if you get both a missed call and a voicemail from the same number at the same time. Check that voicemail first, so you’re not calling back unnecessarily,” said Cody Charvat with Sedgwick County Emergency Management.
You can sign up for the alerts and get messages such as road closures, boil water orders, and health alerts.
You can customize it for where you live within Sedgwick County.
If you’d like to sign up, click here.