'We hear you: Blue Alerts and your frustration.' TBI responds to complaints about texts
In the middle of dinner inside a Knoxville Chick-Fil-A on Tuesday night, dozens of cell phones blared one after another with the startling tone of a statewide "Blue Alert": Police were trying to track down a man wanted for attempted first-degree murder of an officer in Erin, Tennessee, 200-plus miles to the west.
It was the second alert of the day authorized by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and sent through cell phone carriers across the state. Police said in each case, the men had shot an officer. Ultimately, one of the men was arrested. The other died in a gunfight with police in Kentucky.
Blue Alerts: TBI addresses 'frustrations' over multiple Blue Alerts pushed to phones regarding Tennessee manhunts
The alerts, though, generated questions about how the statewide system is used for Blue Alerts, including whether the alerts came after it was known their injuries were not life-threatening, and the fact there have been dozens of homicides of civilians across the state this year but those are not eligible for similar alerts.
Some users said the alerts came hours later – some after the suspects had been found. Some people didn’t get any alert at all.
The TBI heard enough feedback following Tuesday’s dual alerts that it released a statement Wednesday promising to evaluate its use of the system.
"We’ve heard your frustration – loud and clear – about receiving multiple notifications on your mobile devices when two Blue Alerts were issued on Tuesday, June 28th. Some people received audible notifications overnight, many hours after the actual Blue Alerts were issued and resolved," TBI posted on its Facebook account.
"That’s frustrating and inconvenient, for all of us. And for that, we apologize."
About 'Blue Alerts'
The state’s criteria for requesting a “Blue Alert” requires an officer be killed, suffer a life-threatening injury or be missing “under circumstances warranting concern for the law enforcement officer’s safety.” Beyond that, the public and law enforcement must be under an imminent threat to trigger such an alert.
Both shootings occurred Monday, and the officers who were shot did not suffer life-threatening wounds, though, TBI Spokesperson Josh DeVine said, at the time of the incidents the extent of the officers' injuries were unknown. Since the direction of travel was unknown, he said, a statewide alert made the most sense.
"In both recent cases, both suspects shot law enforcement officers and fled the scene, armed with weapons, with no known direction of travel," DeVine said in an emailed statement. "Clearly, there was a pronounced concern for the safety of the citizens of this state. Furthermore, the initial injuries for both officers were reported to be very serious and life-threatening, based on where they were shot."
The TBI uses the statewide infrastructure of the existing AMBER Alert system to push out critical information to the public to assist in locating a missing child who is in imminent danger. Once TBI triggers a Blue Alert, cell phone providers push them to users as an emergency notification. The program began in Tennessee in 2011.
“In ‘Blue Alerts,’ cell phone notifications are just one tool used to alert the public about dangerous fugitives who pose an immediate risk to the community,” the TBI said in a tweeted statement Wednesday morning. “TBI also uses Twitter, Facebook, Nextdoor and traditional media to spread the word.”
While it’s true the TBI regularly sends out updates on wanted criminals, these alerts do not get pinged to hundreds of thousands of cell phones at once.
Both iPhone and Android users can opt out of the alerts, though local emergency officials discourage doing this.
"The goal of the alerting system is to be used when there is a situation necessitating immediate safety warning to our residents and visitors," Brad Anders, the executive director of the Knox County Emergency Communications District said in a statement to Knox News. "Knowing there are multiple levels of government using alert messaging, our desire is for the local system to be used in manner that is effective in getting the appropriate information out.
"We encourage people to accept the alerts as they have been very beneficial in the past," he said.
In a post on the TBI website Wednesday, the agency took pains to explain how some residents received the alerts at a decent time and others were woken up in the middle of the night. The best answer? It's not their fault. Each alert request was sent once. Beyond that, some possibilities:
Your particular cellular service provider
Your movement in and out of state
Your movement across cell tower coverage areas
If you power your device on and off
If you shift in and out of airplane mode
Your signal strength at any particular time
Software and Wi-Fi settings
"While this is certainly not ideal, it’s a function of the technical system in place, not the misstep of any single person or agency," the statement said.
According to the Blue Alert Foundation, 37 states have implemented a “Blue Alert” system, with others considering it. A national system founded by the foundation also works with different organizations to share alerts, according to its website.
Twenty-eight officers have been killed in “firearm-related” incidents in 2022, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. The fund lists an additional 29 deaths from traffic-related incidents and 56 from “other causes.”
An arrest and a deadly shootout
Tuesday’s first “Blue Alert” was triggered after police say Samuel Quinton Edwards shot and wounded a Hendersonville officer during a police chase in Madison on Monday night. Edwards, 34, later died in a shootout with Kentucky State Police in Louisville, officials said.
The second alert identified BJ Brown, who was wanted after police say he shot an officer in Erin during a traffic stop Monday night. Brown, 32, was taken into custody, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday morning.
The Tennessean’s Rachel Wegner, Katie Nixon and Kirsten Fiscus contributed to this report.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee 'Blue Alerts' did not follow rules for sending the texts
