New Hampshire Working Toward Statewide Notification System

A bill is circulating through the New Hampshire legislature to create a statewide emergency notification system. With amendments this month by the House, the legislation is now ready for Senate action. If approved, the bill would direct the state bureau of emergency communications to to develop and maintain the statewide system. Spending would be limited to $600,000

Here are a couple of particularly interesting points about HB-0213, and its new amendments:

1. The notification system would be financed through the same surcharges as the state E911 system. This is normally a controversial topic, since 911 organizations generally don't like their funds used for anything other than 911.

2. As amended, the legislation requires the emergency communications bureau to work with technical personnel of wireline, wireless, voice over Internet Protocol, and cable industries "to ensure the delivery of emergency messages in the most efficient manner". Not many months ago, this would been a tough order to carry out. But, the State of New York through its New York Alert system has shown quite effectively how this can work, and work well. (See "State of New York Fix for Major Emergency Notification Challenge").

There seem to be missing elements of the legislation:

1. We don't see mandates for collaboration with local public safety. Where states have tried to implement statewide systems without collaboration, the results have been less than pretty.

2. What about requirements that investments in the statewide system take into consideration developing federal programs, such as the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) and the related Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS)? At the very least, other efforts have included a requirement that technology used must at least be compliant with the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). Now, certainly the state doesn't need legislation to make those things happen, but it could help.

3. And, the other thing that appears to be missing is enough money. $600,000 may technology a state the size of New Hampshire needs. But, what about funds for public outreach? What about training? What about special needs provisions? And, would $600,000 really be enough to facilitate relationships with the carriers. (New York has spent over $5,000,000 on its statewide system, which includes automatic throttling based on live info from the carriers.)

Despite any shortcomings, hats off to the New Hampshire legislature for trying. If the bill passes and is signed into law, New Hampshire would join only a handful of other states with statewide notification systems.

All the best,

Rick