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Your Phone May Send You 'Blue Alerts' To Warn You When Local Police Are In Danger (androidpolice.com)
The FCC recently announced a new alert program called "Blue Alert" that will notify the public of threats to law enforcement in real time. "With the creation of a dedicated Blue Alert event code in the Emergency Alert System, state and local law enforcement will have the capability to push immediate warnings out to the public via broadcast, cable, and satellite providers, as well as to consumer smartphones through the Wireless Emergency Alert system," reports Android Police. From the report: Much like both the SILVER and AMBER alert programs, and utilizing the same notification system, Blue Alerts aim to warn the general public of threats to public safety and/or imminent danger. However, the police force focused alert system provides timely information to the public when police officers may be in danger. Chairman of the FCC and recent deregulator of the internet, Ajit Pai detailed the new FCC order saying, "Similar to the Amber Alerts that many are familiar with, Blue Alerts will enable authorities to warn the public when there is actionable information related to a law enforcement officer who is missing, seriously injured or killed in the line of duty, or when there is an imminent credible threat to an officer."
The December 14 order from the FCC activates the Blue Alerts service for one calendar year to deliver the notifications over the Emergency Alert System, and for 18 months over the Wireless Emergency Alert system.
The December 14 order from the FCC activates the Blue Alerts service for one calendar year to deliver the notifications over the Emergency Alert System, and for 18 months over the Wireless Emergency Alert system.
Yes, this is a good idea, let's all converge on the scene of a shootout... Or whatever.
On the one hand, with typical "police behavior", often we are lucky when there are "citizen" observers.
On ywt another hand, this presents a safety danger with unknown consistences many of which are not good.
Another aspect that comes to mind is that this is just one more step in the direction of a "Police State" where our Law Enforcement are seen as some holy religious order, our Priests in Blue... We've all seen these 200 car processions when a police officer is killed in the line of duty...
I don't think this is a well thought-out idea.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Grab our rifles and come help. No future to that.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
When the cops are in danger?
What exactly are we supposed to do about it? Gather up the posse and ride off to their rescue? If only we had a paid, professional organization whose job it was to rescue those in great peril...
How about an app that warns us when police are nearby and can be set to automatically record and stream to chosen sites if they get within ten feet? Cops nowadays are little more than sociopaths in military gear, and I'd rather not I (or possibly even my husband) get raped, killed, and our car arrested on suspicion of resisting.
Just passing one by is quickly becoming a coin-toss as to whether or not we end up beaten and arrested on trumped-up charges especially if we're black. Police are not the ones that need protecting from anyone.
What a total waste of money, time and infrastructure. Not that any PD would ever use it, but still...
But unfortunately it was always on.
And will there be a Black Alert to tell the public when unarmed black men are endangered by the police?
Then just for local political issues.
Welcome to the propaganda phone.
SJW pushing their political agenda onto your phone.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Perhaps a Black Alert to tell the public when unarmed black men are endangered by the police?
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
A policeofficer is in danger to many days for the idea to have any merit.
Most police would advise against entering a hostile situation, thereby creating another potential victim or hostage.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
All I imagine is a group of gang-bangers laughing as their phones go off while they are the cause of the threat.
I don't have the foggiest notion what this is supposed to accomplish, really. If a situation is such that a cop is seriously endangered, what in the world could I do about it?
It looks to me like all this does is to further decrease the signal-to-noise ratio in these sorts of things.
I turned all this crap off on my phone the first time I got an "Amber alert" at 4:00AM from 800 miles away. If the kid was around the block I'd be OK with it, but 800 miles away? No--Never. So now I don't receive any sort of alert.
The first time the presidential alert(which can't be disabled) is used in some idiotic way you bet I'll be looking for a ROM that disables it.
...matter so much more than yours or mine.
It's part of their job. I _definitely_ don't care if a LEO is in danger in the middle of the night when I'm attempting to sleep.
Citizens can't doing anything about it and if they tried, they'd get shot or arrested. Is there now a "I'm a cop and feel threatened" button? It's part of the job description. No one makes a person risk their life, unless there's a cop draft I'm not familiar with. I do have a theory though. This alert is location based, which then now gives police probable cause to question local citizens rather than having people complain about hacking a cell tower, which now has a different classification thanks to "Piece A'shit." It may also trigger other backdoors to temporarily open. Start looking out for a lot of cell tower repairs.
I can see this being useful for off-duty police officers, as there have been cases of them being accosted. However, ordinary people don't need to know every time a police officer gets hurt in a traffic collision (statistically, by far, the leading cause of unnatural serious injury or death to on-duty police.) I could maybe see this as some kind of active shooter alert system... but it's so overbroad it's almost never going to be such a scenario, and people will turn it off/tune it out and never get the message. Furthermore, if I'm hiding from a shooter and my phone starts a siren that can be heard a block away, I'm not gonna be hidden any longer.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
the last amber alert showed up 24 hours after the 4 year old was dead and floating down the river. So a police officer is in danger...yesterday
with an exclamation mark...as each one is a greater threat to the enforcement of our nation's laws than the previous.
How about an app for when real people are in trouble?
Damn thing will be goin' off every time a brother steps out of his cell! Fuck dat shit!
Another set of alerts to disable.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Seriously, this guy is a complete tool and needs to be replaced by someone with a clue. GOP is running the show so they can pick their team, but Ajit is going to hurt them in the long run with his terrible choices.
This'll be an alert you can't disabled. When a police officer is injured, they press a button to trigger an alert. The alert:
1) Startles the criminals.
2) Identifies everyone's location through the alarm noise. Police locate the hiding criminals. Criminals kill nearby cowards thus increasing their jail time and removing unwanted people from the population.
3) Has a 'bug' which triggers 100% CPU usage on the phones nearest the alert's ordination point. Thus quickly causes nearby cell batteries to explode and set the criminals on fire.
Thus the police are saved.
If I'm expected to respond to these alerts, then I'm expecting to be paid an hourly wage while I have my cell phone with me and additional hazard pay if the alert ever triggers.
Are we supposed to rush out with our guns and save them?
e.g. something to rile up people and maybe get some more "tough on crime" legislation. I can't think of any other reason to do this. This is not information the public needs to know on a real time basis.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Great. Just freakin' great. This bloody thing is going to go off every time a Black man is pulled over.
BLUE ALERT: Officer has spotted a black man failing to indicate a right turn for at least 3 seconds before starting the maneuver. All residents are advised to remain indoors and definitely do not come out and record the shooting and post to social media.
'Blue Alerts' To Warn You When Local Police Are In Danger
Now we'll all get pestered whenever someone points a camera at the police.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
1) I have no idea what they are hoping people do with that information. So the result will be random at best.
2) It seems like a way to crowd source mobs to attack the police.
3) It's the kind of feedback criminals can use to infer where the police are focused.
4) It's also a method by which criminals can cause an event to distract the police or upset the systemic responses of police.
5) It provides a signal for people to come an watch / video - actually attracting innocent by-standers.
6) If the system is hijacked, it allows a great way of confusing and disrupting the police.
7) It creates the avenue to create fake blue signals to produce panic and inappropriate responses in both the population and police.
... will take this as authorization to shoot on site.
I am licensed to carry in Texas and I'm always armed (concealed) because I am a wildlife photographer.
I have trained to use only while peeing down both legs from fear of dying.
OTOH, I train with Ramboweenies who are looking for any excuse to kill someone.
Here's their chance.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
If a city wants to track crime then put that free data to good use and create a useful app for good people.
Buy up an entire towns worth of data on every person, home, crime and layer it.
Not just the open free city data, all the pay to view private sector data that is collected on crime.
Get all the data on crime, generations of criminals, insurance costs, rent costs, number of people sharing a home. All the hidden statistics that really show what a part of the USA is really like over the decades.
Layer the numbers, crimes over an interactive real time map.
Then FOIA the Blue Alert event code and layer that on top.
Sell a demographics app to warn people from outside the city, the better parts of a town that they are entering a bad part of the town.
A nice friendly bright normal map GUI in the safe areas.
The more darker, gloomy colors with voice and GUI when entering an area that should always be avoided. A final apex predator warning for the no-go area parts of a city.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Police hit this panic button, the subject's phone goes off in the vicinity.
He's over here! No way this could go wrong.
You're saying that all those unarmed black men killed by cops brought it on themselves?
We pay you to do your job not inform us of your little squabbles of guys on your staff.
Mob rule is always the best option, best to trigger it when the police are in trouble. I know, lets signal everyone so that we can rise up against the police at the same time. When you get the blue alert, that is the time to strike.
,,, when Republicans or Democrats (respectively) are alleged to have grabbed a pussy.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
So, demand strangers who are nowhere near the problem, observe and report, like a neighbourhood watch.
Unlike a kidnapped child, the police chose to enter a situation they did not control and did not have back-up for. In many cases, the police escalated a conflict, directly causing their bodily endangerment. I understand we need police for an orderly society but people with badges should not be part of the problem.
Amber and silver alerts involve people who pose little or no threat to the general population. Blue alerts involve people who have already proven to be a danger to law enforcement. Stare at that creepy guy in the next car who matches the description in the text message and he will think nothing of blowing your head off if he feels threatened.
Yeah. Great idea.
Have gnu, will travel.
I just notified Notify NYC to cancel my participation in the alert system because of the offensiveness of the Blue Alert mandate by the FCC.
Why do "mere citizens" need to get involved? When we are in danger, cops tell us not to take things into our own hands and to call 911 instead. Cops should have to do the same thing and wait hours for a response from emergency services, just like the rest of us.
I'm certainly not going to rush to the scene of a violent crime in progress and get my untrained self involved. That's ludicrous, especially when there is a stack of unconstitutional laws on the books prohibiting me even protecting myself, let alone a third party.
Yeah, I said it.
Will they send "Black & Blue" Alerts whenever the police are beating the shit out of someone who is subdued? Will they send "Black & Red" Alerts whenever the cops unload their magazines into unarmed suspects? Will they send "Yellow & Blue" Alerts when they Tazer grandmothers? Will they send "Spotted Alerts" whenever they shoot someones dog? Will they send "White" Alerts when they shoot babies in their crib during SWAT home invasions? Just wondering.
Can we get a Black Alert for when thereâ(TM)s danger FROM police?
They're also planning to start using Gold Alerts, which allow local bankers and business people to push out alerts to cell phone users when they identify a rich person in danger of not having ALL the money he can, due to some grubby peasant somehow managing to come-by some, so that nearby citizens can respond appropriately by taking whatever money anyone nearby might somehow have come into possession of, and handing it directly to the financially endangered rich person, helping him avoid the possibility of his being reduced to being merely well-off. (The HORROR!)
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Per Net Neutrality being gone, ISP provider to slow down Blue Alerts unless Police pay a premium for the service.
Yet another broadcast alert to block.
No I don't give a shit about your presidential, amber, "blue" alerts, leave me alone!
Back to the Wild West we go.
Don't care if police are in danger with a blue alert.
Don't care if some little brat has been missing for 4 seconds and their parent has panicked with an amber alert.
I don't give a fuck. These constant alerts have the opposite effect, because they numb us to alerts and take away any actual sense of urgency.
It's just a bunch of whiny shitheads perpetually wanting to bring the world to alert status to look out for them.
I'm tired of it, I don't give a fuck, and I especially don't give a fuck if popo is in danger.
Making this shit mandatory and tied into the phone system is a waste of resources, and it's like the boy who cried wolf -- people stop listening.
After constantly seeing alerts for shit hundreds of miles away, there's simply no value to this.
Queue Blue Alerts shutting your phone camera off if within x feet of event.
This from the same police that wanted apco 25 encrypted audio so we couldnâ(TM)t know what was going on in their world? Really?
First, sending alerts to people who do not need to take immediate specific action will cause many to turn off alerts entirely. I was woken by one of the large scale Amber alerts - about a child kidnapped 300 MILES from my house. So I've turned off all the alerts that I can.
Secondly, there is no specific action for people to take when police are in distress. I can't imagine that the police want a bunch of armed citizens with no situational awareness converging on the site of some emergency. Seems like that will make almost any situation worse.
Finally, while I believe that most police do a good service to the community, I do not seem them as being unusually noble or risk-taking. Firemen, pilots, and roofers and many others are also exposed to danger while serving the community. Why not an "asphalt alert" when a roofer falls and is injured?
Ow!! My ears. The current test alerts are so loud that I grab the remote to mute the TV. What about alert saturation? Ho-hum, not another one? Who cares?
Perhaps something by NWA?
Ah, yes. The good ol' "I can't see why I would use that feature, so I can't see why anyone would use that feature" argument.
I work as an armed security guard, often on roving patrols from one location to another, frequently through bad parts of town. I've assisted in apprehending felony suspects because by law, I can't refuse to assist the Police if they request my assistance (not that I need a law to compel my assistance, but it is useful when the boss asks what happened).
Something like this could absolutely be useful, although opt-in might be better than opt-out. I'm former Army, know my way around tactical situations, and have been in real firefights in Iraq. Certainly a pinned down officer isn't going to object to my showing up on scene to assist him when he is outnumbered and taking accurate fire.
The U.S. Army field manual for combative training explicitly states who wins in a hand-to-hand fight between an American soldier and a Russian soldier, and that winner is always the side that has a buddy show up with a weapon (you civilians would call it a gun) first. Period. End of story.
In my almost three years in security I have yet to encounter a criminal acting alone while committing a violent crime- two minimum, if not three or more. That is a serious disadvantage for the person trying to stop them, police or not.
So yes- sign me up. I'll be there in a heartbeat.
Policeman doesn't even crack the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the USA. What's next, Tree Service worker in danger alerts?
People, this warning system is for you and me.
What do police do when protecting their own?
Pretty much anything. Think mama bear and her cubs.
This is common in the mammalian family.
Do you want to be anywhere near mama bear?
No. Be thankful for the warning.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Since the police have no legal duty to protect my ass, why should I care if they are in danger? Am I supposed to grab a gun and run to their rescue - probably getting shot by cops in the process since they such scared little girls who like to shoot people?
-- Will program for bandwidth
people will avoid " blue alert " areas like the plague.
Because, like the plague, Death awaits you there.
Police are trigger happy at their best, shoot-first-ask-questions-later types at their worst. Can you guess which personality type you're likely to run into when they're under duress ?
Sorry you're in trouble, but due to the behavior of some ( as you call it ) " bad apples ", you are on your own.
You want my help ? Start treating non-LE types as human beings and we'll talk about it.
Until then, good luck.
so we can rush to help the police? so we can rush to help attack the police? cell phone the police action? put ourselves in a hostage situation? crowd the streets and block police entrance? scare us?
It's just one more alert I'll need to uncheck in my phone's settings.
I already ignore alerts for kids who were taken by their non-custodial parent on the other side of the state and likely already recovered.
Why not also tell me when the Police in a town 30 miles away (or more) are in a shootout?
I can't even leave my ringer on anymore except for known contacts or the robocallers with bother me all day.
Why not give me more reasons to ignore my phone?
Need a Directv sat card in area with no local teams and with some subbing on MLB EI / and NHL CI so can get my local teams but they thing I live in area with no one around so I'm not forced tune to see that some got shot each 15 min all day long.
Citizens on the street may be shot.
The second amendment is very clear. And there is quite a bit of historical information about the intent and earlier drafts of the amendment. We can confidently state that every American can own and carry a firearm.
Now if the second amendment is obsolete and needs to be changed, then simply amendment the constitution for that. We have a proven process to do this. There is no need to find weird loop holes to circumvent the legal process or our current rights, but anti-gun fanatics so far haven't taken the high road on this one and like to throw around rhetoric rather than taking obvious action.
1. I will continue to own several firearms as long as it is legal for me to do so.
2. Once you ratify the Constitution legally, I will give up my guns.
Until then there is really little you can do to stop everyone.
PS - I worry more about a cop shooting me than I about a home invader. If anyone needs to have their guns taken away it's about 50% of police officers I've met.
I used to listen to a police scanner a lot. I mean, a LOT lot. Had radios at home, in my car, and even a handheld to keep me tuned in even on the toilet. No I didn't have a girlfriend at the time, how did you possibly guess? Geez. Mindreaders.
Anyway, the thing with scanners is you know what the hell is happening, to an extent, as soon as the police do. It can drive spikes in blood pressure listening to a traffic stop turn into a shootout, etc etc. And I had issues with that and the fact the the number one rule, as such, about listening to scanner stuff is never ever never ever never go to the scenes of what you hear. Stay the hell out of it.
Eventually, the local PD moved to a trunked radio system and none of my radios could hear them. A girlfriend model was acquired and it didn't like listening to police radios either. So I quit. I have no clue what my local PD is doing and I don't care.
I do not need or want shit alerts showing up to tell me they ran out of dougnuts or some bullshit deemed a police emergency. If they have an emergency, fuck it, they have mutual aid agreements with ALL the adjacent police agencies. They can call up those folks and get trained, real cops to come help. Do that thing. Don't try to get amateurs into the act. The Pros are bad enough,
Sig for hire.
Send more cops.
Send more paramedics.
You know what would serve the public interest? An alert every time one of those militarized low IQ class traitors kills a member of the public.
It's obvious that police lives don't matter -- because nobody riots or burns down a neighborhood when a police officer is shot.
So long as I won't be able to fine people who run red lights and drive 30 over the speed limit, I'll let the cops do their own job themselves.
If they have something that can tell ME they're in trouble, surely there will be enough of THEM on the way to help that they won't even need ME.
What's the point of this? Really?
I tend to rant.
Too bad the police don't have some sort of radio-based system for alerting each other... they should work on that...
WTF am I supposed to do about it? Grab my gun and run in to help, firing every which way like Yosemite Sam? Yes, that would help the situation.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot!
Everyone seems to be attacking the whole police state angle, but just for a moment consider this. Is this going to work like those stupid forced eas alerts?
BLUE ALERT: Active shooter and officers pinned down at X location.
Poor B@stard hiding in a closet at the scene: ***BLUE ALERT ALARM GOING OFF on smartphone. "EFF ME...STUPID PHONE... PLEASE NO...DON'T SHOOT!"
Fox5 Nightly news: Poor b@stard found shot dead holding smartphone wrapped in a winter coat and hiding in a closet at active shooter scene today.
The literal way. How it was first defined a by Mussolini ... and then way further.
It is the agenda if the psychopathic-fascist Mont Perelin Society (with its > 500 think tanks) since 1946.
Go back to your redneck bar or street corner where the NSA are still believed to be "the good guys" and nobody evil exists or plans anything ever, because everyone conspired to be good and decent and honest.
Yeah, very realistic! --.--
Take a shot or sip of your favorite beverage every time the alert goes off!
Perhaps I fail to understand the workings and purpose of this Blue Alert thing.
Police already have a thankless job. It is hard enough for them w/o the general public (potentially) rushing to (and interfering with) a scene.
I already get a notice in the local papers when a cop is injured or killed.
I cannot imagine how alerting me real time would actually change that.
Perhaps we are now all to rush to a scene and start video recording on our smart phone?!
Every instance where I have been near the presence of a crime, I was told to move on and don't interfere.
Tell me again how this idiot Ajit Pai came into office? And why he is still there?
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
I do not know what a SILVER alert is, but will add this to the list of alerts I ignore ....
( I do pay attention to the weather alerts however )
"Hey, we're pinned down by these shooters. We better let EVERYONE know exactly where we are and that we're in trouble!"
Personally, I'd just like to use it to join in and finally rid our streets of these useless thugs.
I mean the cops, of course. Fuck them all.
... is an app that warns us when cops are dunk on power and likely to beat or kill someone.
That would be a useful app.
This is pretty great, when I get a Blue Alert I'll grap my popcorn and wear comfortable laughing clothes. Why would anybody but the KKK give a fuck if pigs are in danger? These fuckers are the worst armed gang in the country.
1) What is the intended purpose? What action is the public supposed to take?
2) How often does a police officer die, is lost, or there is a "credible threat"(Whatever they decide that is)
a. Cops killed: Averages about 49 per year and has been DECREASING significantly for 30 years
b. People killed by police: Average about 1000 per year and INCREASING significantly
c. You are WAY more likely to be killed by a cop than terrorists (~1/8000 versus 1/45,000)
3) They are WAY overpaid. Don't tell your kids top become doctors; Cops are better paid with no school debt. There are many cops on Long Island that make WELL OVER $200,000 a year and then to add insult retire in 20 years AND CONTINUE to get paid handsomely with benefits for life. I know someone who failed the apprentice plumber test 3 times so he became a cop.
4) This system is designed to brainwash us into believing that cops are "heros" and should get paid MORE.
How about this: Pay teachers more so people don't become criminals!
So basically phones will be going off 24/7 because Law Enforcement are always "In Danger" or "Feel Threatened."
I was a a Chrismas party last night and there was an amber alert, and at least 75% of the attendee's phones went off simeltaneously. I can only imagine this will be even worse.
I am still waiting for Trump to discover the Presidential Emergency Notifications that I can't turn off on my cell phone. I'm gonna HMBOL when 300,000,000 phones start shrieking, and everyone looks down to see.... "FAKE NEWS"
How many good Samaritans are going to run into a situation where the police themselves are in danger?
How many cowboys are going to run in with guns drawn and cause problems? Will responding civilians be able to identify plain-clothes officers?
How long until gangs or other cop-haters start watching for these alerts so they can save their friends or ambush the responders?
This is the worst idea I have heard in a long, long time. But, hey, this country loves paying lip service to cops. This is a stupid, dangerous gesture.
---
According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Finally Ajit Shitpai did something good.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Nothing like telling all the criminals where the cops are so the criminals can go gang up on them.
This sig intentionally left blank.
Unarmed, had a knife, attacked a cop or ran after being warned....but sure let's lump them all together
Because Frankly My dear, I don't give a damn!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
How about an alert you get when the police are endangering people?
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
Did you mean threats by?
Golden Alerts when a senile elderly escaped the nursing home? Pink alerts when your neighbor just got diagnosed with breast cancer? White alerts when granny has fallen and canâ(TM)t get up? Brown Alerts when someone is driving reckless because they need to take a shit? Fuchsia Alerts when someone do
We out of the closet? Black alerts when blacks are nearby?