|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Many Pleasanton residents were jolted awake Monday night and during much of the day yesterday when they received unexpected Amber Alerts about two siblings who were reported missing out of San Diego County.
Just before 11 p.m., an emergency alert sounded on mobile devices alerting Californians that an Amber Alert had been issued and that authorities were looking for a blue four-door Nissan Versa with California license plate number 6WCU986.
The alert was for Hannah Anderson, 16, and her brother, 8-year-old Ethan Anderson, who were reported missing Monday night. The previous day, their mother was found dead inside the burned home of 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio in the San Diego County community of Boulevard.
DiMaggio is suspected of kidnapping the children and authorities say he may be headed to Texas or Canada in the Nissan.
The Amber Alerts to cellphones were sent out as part of the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, which was rolled out nationwide at the start of this year by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The alerts are designed to inform people of emergencies, including extreme weather or natural disasters. They are received by certain, newer cellphones that have the built-in capability to receive them.
The alert, which looks like a text message, is short with basic information about the incident and instructions for any follow-up action to
take. The message causes a special tone and vibration in the phone that is receiving it.
This reporter received a number of alerts which sounded a loud buzzing sound much like those on TV when emergency alert tests are conducted, blocking out current broadcasts. Coming as they did while driving, the iPhone alert was startling with no way legally of picking up the phone before pulling out of traffic and stopping.
The phone started making an “unholy noise” that seemed like the phone had gone into “nuclear attack mode.”
The concern is that the annoying sound and seemingly random message — the alert had no background on the kidnapping or the missing children — will discourage people paying attention to the notification system or even using it.
Cellphone owners who received the alerts can “opt out” by changing the settings on their phones. Those having trouble doing so can contact their service providers for assistance.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
As for the sound, if I’d been driving it surely could have contributed to having an accident.
As for the message, it had quite adequate information for the search going on, and, had it had more information, drivers would be spending time reading rather than paying attention.
One concern, when I open my phone, the message disappears leaving me with “no” information to focus on.
So, yes, it was a cacaphony of noise that was alarming to me, provided good information, but would need to be able to be seen after unlocking ones phone.
I usually leave me phone on at night,
my mother might call in an emergency.
How do we turn this “feature” off on an iPhone?
Can we limit the time of day so it doesn’t wake me?
Overdoing it:
And
Most of these amber alerts seem to be domestic squabbles-
Amber Alerts are Very Important to those involved. Loved ones are in Immediate Danger of possibly losing their lives. If you were an Involved party and needed the Amber Alert to find a child or family member, you would think differently and not consider it a Bother. For God’s sake a Killer is out there and possibly driving behind YOU.
All iPhone users and cell phone users can easily purchase a Blue Tooth device to answer without having to Pull Over in traffic or otherwise. You should have your phone turned OFF if you can’t Ignore a Call when driving!
Thank you, Claudette!
I hardly call torching a house and murdering a child and woman a “domestic squabble”.
If you are that concerned that your mother may call you but you don’t want to here the Amber alerts page, turn off the mobile data during the night. It’s that easy.
Amber alert has become to big. When they have the power to force this on everyone, it’s just wrong. This use to be a good cause, but now it’s to big and to much power. Who ever made this decision, it was a bad call !
I will not pay that much attention to amber alerts because of this and thats “sad”. It should be that you “opt in” not have to “opt out”.
Iphone users: goto settings, notifications, amber alerts and turn off.
Yes, I was jolted (my phone was on my nightstand) but once I read it and understood the seriousness of this,I was ok with.
The hard thing was, as someone mentioned above – finding the info again once I opened the phone. I did find it though.
We need to to do everything we can to help find stolen kids.
However, those that want to “opt-out” should be able to, specifically for people who are in bed and not likely to be on the road anytime soon.
My sincere THANKS to Local Geek*:
I’m going on travel, and do not need or want alerts that will not concern me.
I read it here!
I think this worked (from above) :
*Iphone users: go to: settings, notifications, amber alerts and turn off.
You have to scroll down to find it, it’s pretty well hidden!
Wish whoever is responsible for this had been fair and made this an Opt in, rather than an Opt out. AND they could have told people about it BEFORE it woke them up at 11PM.
I am glad they caught the bad guy.
Wonder if we’ll hear why they killed him?
Does anyone know this?
wh0cd3180 [url=http://buyviagraonline2017.com/]buy viagra online[/url]
How About…..: Amber alerts are serious events. They are not “domestic squabbles”.
It’s not a big deal, but I got the Amber Alert anyway even though I have Amber Alerts turned off on my iPhone. It was apparently sent via the Emergency Alert system, which I signed up for with the Pleasanton Police Dept. which uses a system called Nixle.com. So I just got a regular text notification sound, not the “whoop whoop” siren or whatever. I didn’t mind the notification, although something happening in San Diego does seem to be of limited relevance.
The Pleasanton Nixle alerts so far have not been well chosen. A couple have been road closures due to accidents or construction (useful, but hardly an emergency), and one was the robbery of a Verizon store near the mall (OK, might be important), and one was that a kid had a skateboard accident in a cul-de-sac (sorry for the kid & his family, but that has zero public impact and is not an emergency).
Hopefully the PPD will develop better guidelines for the Nixle notifications.