This past weekend in Ontario, we had an Amber Alert issued. And although the child was found safe and sound, there are some things that need major improvements.
Last year, Canada’s “Alert Ready” system was rolled out, this is similar to the “Emergency Broadcast System” that has been in the United States for many decades now. This system uses traditional radio and television signals to inform people of important events such as severe weather, terrorist threats and Amber Alerts just to name a few.
Now, the Amber Alert system has been in place for quite a while now and the new alert ready system is another way to get the message out there. Prior to now, it would be up to the individual radio and TV stations to broadcast this information. This new alert ready system is an attempt to get information out faster and more efficiently by having important information broadcast on all media outlets at the exact same time. These alerts will interrupt the broadcast that you are watching or listening to. Some people have complained about this. That’s not what this article is about. This article is about getting information out EFFECTIVELY.
On Sunday night, we had an Amber Alert issued for a missing child here in Ontario. Here is what the alert looked like on news websites and other social media:
THIS IS AN “AMBER ALERT” ACTIVATION MESSAGE!
Police: Toronto Police Service
Child : 3 month old baby boy, short dark hair,
Abductor: Male white, 20-25 years old. Short blond hair, 5 foot 11 inches, medium build
Vehicle: Tan colored 4 Door 1997 Toyota Camry, Ontario # BWRC 161
Location last observed: Northbound Highway #27 at Albion Road
If observed call 911
Looks pretty good right? Yes it does. Unfortunately, trying to get this information out via Broadcasts was a complete disaster. Here is the audio version as this alert sounded if you heard it on TV or radio:
So many things wrong here. What did the guy say? Of course it wasn’t a real guy, it was obviously some text to speech system. And as you can hear, the numbers weren’t translated correctly. The 1997 model year was transcribed to “one thousand, nine hundred ninety seven”. And the best part, if you see this vehicle, call “September 1st, 2001”. On top of that, this alert aired only ONCE. Imagine driving in your car and hearing this on the radio. Before you can really grasp what is going on, the alert is over and is never repeated. I have other beefs with the way this was all handled, I covered it this week on my podcast.
This system was in development for a few years before it rolled out. I have a hard time believing that somewhere along the way, someone didn’t think to put some test text into the system to hear how it sounded.
I really hope improvements can be made to this system. Even though this was mandated by the government, it’s still good to have as many venues as possible to get vital information out there. Perhaps the private sector could have pulled this off more efficiently.