Notifications Gone Bad

A couple of recent mistakes with telephone notification systems has the general public agitated, in one case the public scattered across the country.

In one instance, a notification for Creighton University in Omaha about a possible shooting woke up people scattered around the country, some of whom probably had never heard of Creighton. A university spokeswoman said the glitch was related to the vendor Creighton uses, but didn't name the vendor.

In another recent situation Decatur, Illinois used their telephone notification system on two occasions within hours of one another to issue alerts about, first, an Alzheimer's patient, then a missing 16-year-old with medical problems. The notifications covered a five-mile radius, including area outside the city. Some residents complained that they should have not received the message. A city spokesman acknowledged that the notifications perhaps could have been confined to a more restricted area. However, he urged residents not to use the incident as a reason to ask to be removed from the notification lists.

Hard to tell what should have been done differently in the first situation. I'm sure Creighton and the vendor are working to make sure it doesn't happen again. In the second one, perhaps the city did notify an area too wide. We shouldn't second-guess. But, we do like the fact that the city spokesman was quick to say, hey, we may have over-reached...but, don't ask to be taken off the call list.

This is not a perfect science. Mishaps will occur. Better they occur by notifying too many people than not enough people. Let's learn from the mistakes, and move on.

All the best,

Rick