PORT ANGELES — The pursuit of a man who threatened to overdose on heroin on the city’s west side should not have triggered a confusing telephone and email bulletin through much of central Clallam County that warned residents to “stay inside with the doors locked,” police said.
The emergency management division of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office issued an imprecise alert message to more than 6,000 cellphones and landlines in central Clallam County at 7:01 p.m. Thursday.
The bulletin, which was emailed to recipients who had signed up earlier for such alerts, simply said:
“The following email is from the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office. Please read the message carefully and follow any instructions given.
“K9 officers searching for fugitive. Stay inside with doors locked. Report suspicious activity to law enforcement.”
The alert was issued on behalf of the Port Angeles Police Department, Sheriff’s Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King said.
Those who had signed up for emergency alerts on the Everbridge system received the emails, King said.
Port Angeles Police Detective Sgt. Jason Viada, the incident commander in the search for Dean Douglas Francis, asked for an alert to be sent to homes and businesses in the west-side section of the city where Francis had last been seen.
Police, who were backed up on other calls, did not verify the wording of the alert message or the range of its dissemination with county emergency management officials, Port Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said.
So the alert about a man wanting to go into the woods to commit suicide by drugs was telephoned and emailed to people miles from the scene.
“We own the message,” Smith said Friday.
“We’d want to precisely word the message in a way that doesn’t cause undue alarm.”
It was sent to about 4,200 phones in an area between Deer Park Road east of Port Angeles and the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation west of the city, King said.
The message failed to reach 2,200 other phones in the Port Angeles area, including King’s phone.
“This is a learning experience for us, too,” King said.
A second message that stated, “Search for suicidal suspect is canceled. Resume normal activities,” was issued to 6,300 phones at 8:06 p.m., King said.
Francis 27, was arrested on a state Department of Corrections warrant at about 8:20 p.m. after a citizen who received the alerts notified police of his whereabouts.
“That event did not really rise to the occasion of sending out an alert,” Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict said.
Benedict agreed that the initial alert lacked basic information and was sent to a wider audience than was intended.
Smith agreed.
The message should have provided the location of the search and a description of the subject, he said.
“It was a mistake to send that message out the way it went out,” Smith said.
Smith demonstrated to the Peninsula Daily News on Friday how Everbridge is used to send alerts to targeted sections of the city, county or region.
He said the alert went out to a wider audience than was intended because of a “system challenge” with the software.
Benedict said the emergency management staffer who relayed the bulletin was “well-meaning but wasn’t well-trained.”
“She’s trained in emergency response, not in police stuff,” Benedict said.
Clallam County emergency management launched Everbridge in April 2013 to keep citizens apprised of severe weather, natural disasters, toxic environmental issues and in-progress violent crimes.
The agency in charge of a dangerous incident such as an active shooter situation is also responsible for alert bulletins, Smith said.
The Everbridge system replaced Nixle, another emergency alert system that is still being used in Jefferson County.
“It’s working really well for us, mainly because it’s an opt-in system — that is, you have to want to use it,” said Bob Hamlin, director of the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management.
About 3,500 Jefferson County residents subscribe to the text-only Nixle, which is commonly used for road and weather alerts and storms scenarios.
“I test it once a week just to keep people’s confidence up in it,” Hamlin said.
“It’s really efficient, simple to use and very quick.”
One of the dangers of alarming people unnecessarily with emergency bulletins is the public may be less inclined to take future alerts seriously, King said.
“We believed this was going to be a better system,” King said of the Everbridge software.
“I still have that same belief, but it may be that we’ll need to have some dialogue on its capabilities and limitations.”
Benedict and Smith agreed that Thursday’s alert will result in additional training for dispatch, emergency management officials and officers.
“It shows we have a very capable system, but we need to work a little bit on the policy and process on how we’re going use it,” Benedict said.
The sheriff apologized to residents who were needlessly alarmed Thursday.
“We’re going to try to turn it into something positive,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
