Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has called for more oversight over emergency alert systems in the United States, especially in light of the ballistic missile false alarm that happened in Hawaii nearly three months ago. The Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet recently held a field hearing this week at the city of Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, and it was during this event that Commissioner Rosenworcel urged the FCC to be more vigilant in imposing more scrutiny and accountability on every state in America when they file their yearly confirmation of Emergency Alert Systems.
One of Commissioner Rosenworcel’s major concerns was determining if a state’s emergency alerts plan is always up to date. According to her, the annual filings of confirmation should grant an excellent opportunity for the FCC to check if local, state, and federal bureaus are indeed following best practices, particularly in the area of public safety and emergency situations.
She then cited Hawaii’s plan as an unfortunate example of a plan that is not up to date. For those not familiar with the January incident, what happened was that an employee of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency had erroneously aired an emergency alert to mobile devices and broadcast stations across the Aloha state, warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack (the truth was that it was only a military exercise). While it is true that the agency was able to eventually send a secondary alert informing the public of the mistake, it did so after half an hour, which meant that some of the Hawaiian residents who got the first message were already starting to panic.
The employee has since been dismissed from the agency, despite the fact that the employee had sincerely thought an attack was coming, as later explained by officials. Immediately after the incident, the state of Hawaii was compelled to make changes to its emergency alert system, which now requires a minimum of two employees in order to broadcast a message to the public. The process for cancelling potentially wrong alerts is now also made quicker and easier.
Ajit Pai, the chairman of the FCC, had launched an investigation of the Hawaii incident, but considering that the agency has minimal authority to begin with when it comes to directing states on how to establish their respective emergency alert systems, some are not sure if the FCC can truly help. This is exactly why Commissioner Rosenworcel is calling for more oversight and better control -- she is in full support of the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats (ALERT) Act of 2018, a legislation proposed by Hawaii’s Senator Brian Schatz back in February early this year that bans state and local governments from informing citizens of any ballistic missile threat, instead tasking federal officials to broadcast the warning.
