Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has signed an executive order requiring clearer rules, identified department leaders and trained staff for the city's AlertSeattle em
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has signed an executive order requiring clearer rules, identified department leaders and trained staff for the city's AlertSeattle emergency notification system that come after the deadly Bite of Seattle shooting exposed a failure to use the tool as people were in locked or searched for information.
The order, signed Wednesday, creates a new city internal AlertSeattle Operating Board to write shared operating procedures spelling out which departments are responsible for sending alerts, who should receive them and when they should go out. It also calls for relevant departments to identify and train people to use the system, which can push urgent information to subscribers’ phones, email and social media channels. The city must also conduct an annual public alert test.
The directive is part of a broader emergency readiness order focused on planning, training and coordination among city departments. But the AlertSeattle provisions arrive weeks after the July 26 shooting outside the Seattle Center Armory during the Bite of Seattle festival, when three people were killed and several others were wounded. Wilson had originally downplayed the need for the system, before saying on Thursday AlertSeattle “is one specific tool that could and should have been used in that instance.”
Newly released text messages between city and police leaders show Seattle police knew within minutes that shots had been fired and that multiple people had been shot. The messages released so far do not show anyone directing the activation of AlertSeattle, even as officers searched for a possible second shooter and the public waited for clear information.
At a news conference the day after the shooting, Wilson was asked why the city had not used the alert system. At the time, she said she was “not sure that that's a tool that we normally use in situations like this,” saying officials were focused on releasing accurate information through normal communication channels and avoiding undue fear and confusion.
Asked whether the new order amounted to recognition that no one had called AlertSeattle to warn the public of an active shooter or the unfolding emergency at Seattle Center, Wilson said she did not want to say there had been no discussion of the system that night.
“I actually believe there was,” Wilson said. “We're going to be relying on the inspector general to tell us the full story of why that tool was not used.”
The city’s Office of Inspector General is conducting an independent review of the shooting response and the flow of information that night. Wilson said the report is expected later this year.
The executive order keeps the AlertSeattle Operating Board as the decision making body for the system. Under the new direction, it will be co-led by designees from the Office of Emergency Management and the Mayor’s Office communications team. Representatives from Seattle Police, Fire, transportation, utilities, IT and human resources are also to take part. Seattle Office of Emergency Management Director Curry Mayer said Wednesday that public alerting is only one component of emergency management and that individual operational departments can initiate communications. But when asked whether any city department sought an AlertSeattle activation on the night of the shooting, Mayer said, “I do not” know.
The order also requires all city departments to update and maintain emergency-response plans, establish continuity of operations plans and participate in after action reviews when incidents involve emergency operations center activation or Office of Emergency Management coordination. It also directs the city to hold at least two annual citywide tabletop exercises and one annual functional exercise at the emergency operations center.
That coordination question has been central to the political fallout from the Bite of Seattle shooting. Released texts show then-Chief Shon Barnes, nearly 40 minutes into the response, writing that he did not know who was in charge and directing people to slow down and follow active shooter protocols. Other texts showed Mayor’s Office staff discussing keeping Wilson away and waiting for her before a public briefing.
Wilson again acknowledged Wednesday that her office bears responsibility for the final delay before the late-night news conference.
“My office owns that final delay between about 9:45 pm and 10:45 pm. when the press conference ultimately took place,” she said. “A press conference with myself and other elected officials in no way should replace clear, consistent, informative communication throughout the night from SPD to the public.”
She said the city and police department have released text messages “in the interest of transparency,” but she declined to draw final conclusions before the inspector general’s investigation. For now, the executive order establishes the structure critics said was missing in the first hours after the shooting and a defined process for deciding when the public should receive an emergency alert, and who is accountable for sending it.
