Denver will now require employees to receive additional approval before they can send wireless emergency alerts to residents, a change that comes after employees mistakenly sent out three city-wide safety alerts in the past five months.
The Office of Emergency Management is now the only department authorized to send citywide public safety alerts via the wireless system, meaning that if 911 employees want to use the system, they have to receive approval from the executive director of safety, Mayor Mike Johnston’s office announced on Monday.
Otherwise, 911 employees will use reverse emergency notifications — or REN — to send residents information about incidents via calls, text messages or emails if they have opted into alerts for specific locations, the city said.
REN doesn’t have the ability to send an alert citywide, said Matthew Mueller, executive director of the Office of Emergency Management.
The city will continue to use the wireless system for severe or widespread emergencies, but will require a minimum of three approvals before localized alerts are sent, according to the news release.
The city has used the wireless system in the past to send residents information related to the pandemic and during the racial justice protests in 2020, Mueller said.
City employees are also now required to have the National Weather Service’s confirmation before using sirens during storms. All employees who interact with the city’s emergency notification systems will receive annual training on the procedures, the mayor’s office announced.
The changes were made after the city sent three errant alerts to residents in recent months, including when a member of the Denver Fire Department sounded a siren across the city earlier this month after he received a false report of a tornado.
In April, an alert about a robbery in the Ruby Hill neighborhood was mistakenly sent to residents citywide. A similar incident happened in January, when the city pushed out a widespread warning about an “active threat” near the University of Denver.
The city’s emergency and department officials conducted a review of Denver’s public notification process this week, according to the news release.
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.
Read more Man charged with murder in fatal Aurora alley shooting
Read more Montezuma-Cortez star shortstop Cory Dean Carver wins the 2026 Roy Halladay Award
Read more Higher mortgage rates have Denver housing market in a cage
