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Authority seeks Everbridge policy and training after over‑alerting led to subscriber losses
Summary
After an episode of over‑alerting tied to phone/CallWorks issues, Lake County officials said they lost about 100 Everbridge subscribers and want a formal policy and training on when and how to send alerts.
Lake County staff told the E‑911 Authority on Jan. 3 that an episode of over‑alerting — where repeated or broad Everbridge messages were sent during a phone‑line outage — led to roughly 100 residents unsubscribing from the county alert service.
Staff said the alerts sent during a CallWorks/phone outage included simultaneous text, email and phone calls. Some recipients — including county employees — asked to stop receiving the full blast because they felt over‑alerted. An authority member said the county peaked at more than 500 subscribers during a prior wildfire and that the list had fallen to about 400 following recent unsubscriptions.
Members directed staff to draft a formal Everbridge policy with clear criteria and flowcharts describing when to use text‑only, email, phone calls, or an IPAWS alert. Staff were asked to develop standardized training, clear criteria for emergency versus informational messages (for example, multi‑hour highway closures vs. short closures), and sample templates to reduce unnecessary mass calls.
No vote was taken; staff will add policy language and training to the improvement plan and return with a recommended policy and training schedule.
