New York's Use Of Phone Alert Shines Spotlight On Wireless Emergency System - Emma Reyna

Summary:

Today around eight o'clock in the morning New Yorkers woke up to an alarming message on their phone highlighting the wanted suspect who was responsible for the Chelsea bombing that Saturday night. The message read "WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-year-old male. See media for pic. Call 9-1-1 if seen." This alert was although different in a sense altogether. Usually your typical emergency alerts would be consisted of weather related advisories or abducted children but this time it was in a much broader and more important scale. It was the first time they used this type of system to alert such a wide audience  about an important event like this.

Analysis:

 I particularly feel like this article was mainly published to inform us about what's going on around us especially if we aren't always aware of our surroundings. Especially when events similar like the bombings in NY and NJ are also happening across the world that at the same time.  This type of of technology is probably the most efficient when informing us of these events especially when we live in an era where the use technology for example, smartphones are used a lot on a daily basis its at time like these where they're the most useful. But on the other hand alerts like these can also  be very misleading in a sense if the information isn't correct. Although sometimes almost never but very likely to happen is act of accusing of someone guilty when in reality they were innocent. If the government keeps issuing alerts on a large scale like this I hope they don't ever make a mistake like this especially when it could be very crucial.

Synthesis:

This event can be compared to the creation of Amber alerts which was put in affect  back in 1996 when a young girl was abducted and killed. Back then the creation of such a thing was so revolutionary at that time because they allowed people to find the children who were abducted faster and easier. Although the development as alerts such as these are mainly for a good cause it's always good to keep in mind not to make such accusations on innocent people or always believe the information you receive because you never know if the information is inaccurate.

Source:

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/09/19/494574944/new-yorks-use-of-phone-alert-shines-spotlight-on-wireless-emergency-system