On March 13, the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center (ECC) team worked diligently to respond to a critical situation involving an active shooter in Mounds View. The details of our response and the alert system that played a crucial role in notifying the public are below.
The emergency call
At approximately 1:55 p.m., the ECC received an urgent call from Mounds View police reporting an active shooter in that city. According to police, an armed suspect had shot someone and fled the scene on foot. Police wanted people in the immediate area to shelter in place until further notice.
Timeline of alerts
2:11 p.m. - first alert
The ECC issued a shelter in place alert for the affected area via Everbridge, our alerting software system. This message, which was sent to cell phones within a geographic area bounded by Long Lake Road and Interstate 35W in Mounds View and New Brighton, told people to shelter in place until further notice.
This alert was intended to go out only to cellular phone users who were currently in the affected geographic area. However, it also went to cell phones of residents who live in that area, even if they were outside of that area at the time of the alert.
The subject line of the alert mentioned that affected area was in Mounds View, but the city name was not included in the body of the message. People with older phones would not get the subject line in their alert and would not know that this shelter in place alert was specific to Mounds View, which could be confusing for anyone receiving the alert outside of the affected area.
4:45 p.m. - follow-up alert
Mounds View police alerted ECC that the shelter in place had been lifted. A follow-up alert was sent to subscribers the same way the previous alert was sent including Mounds View, MN in the subject and body of the alert, which was the optimal way to reach everyone who received the initial alert.
Ongoing improvements
The ECC is reviewing its Everbridge manual to improve clarity and ensure staff can effectively use it during emergencies to provide life-saving information and prevent unnecessary shelter-in-place alerts.
Additionally, the ECC is enhancing their current training by adding specialized monthly sessions for supervisors, to practice with Everbridge in a controlled environment, as it is used for these types of alerts infrequently. This will help ensure all supervisors gain regular, hands-on experience.