Startled In North Dakota: Why Silver Alerts Need A Reboot

On Saturday night, many of us received a startling notification on our phones and other electronic devices. It was a Silver Alert, indicating there was a missing elderly individual who may have cognitive impairments.

The good these alerts do shouldn't be understated. It is a comfort knowing these work as intended and grab our attention and help reunite families.

While that is absolutely true, I can't help but point out how jarring these alerts are. Many people I've spoken to said they are disruptive, and my experience with them was a little scary.

I was home alone, completely shaken by the loud horn blasting out of my phone, Alexa, and smartwatch. It was startling. I felt like the purge was happening. I was scrambling to get them all shut off.

Potentially Dangerous?

Imagine driving down the road or being in any potentially dangerous situation when one of these alarms goes off. Imagine you're sleeping and suddenly woken up by this apocalyptic sound.

Many people I've spoken to question whether the chosen alert tone and overall frequency of the alerts are truly necessary.

This is something people question largely due to the fact, that the situation is often resolved within 20 minutes of the alert going out with little to no help from those outside of law enforcement.

Again, I am in no way saying that we shouldn't have these systems in place, nor am I saying we shouldn't be notified immediately about these situations.

However, I will say that the repeated shocks from these alerts can easily desensitize people to future, possibly more urgent, alerts.

We Only Really Ever Get Silver Alerts

It is odd, isn't it? --We don't get notified about tornados this way. Those warnings are primarily issued to local weather radios (EAS), apps, and TV broadcasts. We might hear a faint siren in the distance 20 seconds before it hits, but we don't get immediate, attention-grabbing alerts on our devices for those more urgent and impactful situations.

Usually, we get a silent "Tornado Warning" notification on our phones from a sightly, less-than-reliable free weather app. We may or may not see that in enough time to save our lives.

It wasn't long ago when Bismarck experienced severe flash flooding. Where were those loud tones during that dangerous weather event?

What About Missing Children?

Amber Alerts are only pushed out when a child has been abducted, according to NDResponse.gov, but aren't missing/runaway children something we should be aware of as well?

To date, while living in North Dakota, I don't recall ever receiving a loud-tone alert about a missing minor/child, even though I've seen local authorities posting on Facebook about various missing kids. Why are children not as prioritized as missing seniors?

Look, I won't pretend to know how all these systems work and why they operate as they do, but I will, at the very least, ask the questions.

Allow me to reiterate again, that I do appreciate how these Silver Alerts mobilize our communities and bring families relief, though, I do wonder if there is a better way to balance the effectiveness and urgency of these various alerts, while minimizing unnecessary disruptions to our North Dakota communities.