East Lansing and Ingham County change emergency warning systems

Starting Saturday, June 1, the City of East Lansing and Ingham County will transition their emergency alert systems to Rave Alert, a mass notification system. The new emergency alert system will allow users to personalize the type of alerts they receive, share information with local dispatchers, and receive more geographically specific alerts. Notifications.

Nixle, the current emergency alert system, is no longer used by departments to issue critical alerts and other Notifications.

Kyla Carranco, Ingham County Staff Service Manager, said users who currently have a profile through Nixle will automatically have a profile created on Rave Alert, but they will need to manually enable notifications to take advantage of the new feature. System.

Carranco said Rave Alert allows departments to send targeted, geographic alerts, more than is possible with the current System.

“It gives us more flexibility so we can alert where it is needed and not cause disruption in areas where alerting is not needed,” Carranco said of Rave Alarm.

She also said that while the current system allows for “some geographic alerts,” Rave Alert offers even more control over those areas, where they can narrow the alerts down to a block Radius.

“We can now do this more spontaneously and as needed,” said Carranco. “In the previous system, the prefabricated.”

Carrie Sampson, communications director for the city of East Lansing, said Rave Alert allows users to customize the type of alerts they receive, as well as specify accessibility and language preferences. Sampson said the app also allows users to specify additional information that may be useful to dispatchers in the event of an Emergency.

“For example, if someone in your home is deaf or has autism, you can indicate that using the Smart 911 application,” Sampson said. “You can even indicate that you have a pet. … There are many features that help dispatchers know if you have a special Fact.”

Users can still receive emergency alerts through the system without specifying them Information.

“You don’t have to reveal more information than you as a user are willing to reveal,” says Sampson. said.

Melissa Harris, Ingham County’s chief of staff services, said the new system allows users to sign up for mass notifications on topics such as weather, traffic-related incidents, road closures, evacuations and more.

“If they have a profile, (members of) the public can subscribe to all the notifications they want in their area,” said Harris said.

Sampson said that after the mass shooting at MSU on February 13, 2023, Ingham County began transitioning to a new emergency alert system to improve communication between its communities.

“After the tragedy last February, Ingham County started thinking about how we could unite,” Sampson said. “They really pursued this plan and invited all communities across the county to join. them.”

Sampson said RaveAlert is widely used across the country and is currently being deployed in other areas of Michigan. System.

To sign up for the new alert system, visit Smart911 website.