Police and fire chiefs tell council accuracy and family notification guide emergency communications; council asks for a status-report protocol

Columbia — The council revisited how the city communicates during emergencies after members asked for clearer expectations about timing and content of updates to the council and the public.

Staff said the city manager has been sending council-wide text messages when an emergency occurs and providing updates as new information becomes available. Councilors asked whether those updates should follow a set timeline and whether police and fire communications follow a written protocol.

Police leadership emphasized the need for caution in releasing details; Matt, speaking for law enforcement, warned that premature or inaccurate releases can be harmful. “Once you put it out, you better be really certain that it's the right information and it's the right time because you can't take it back,” he said. The department and the fire chief described constraints including victim-family notification, HIPAA and other confidentiality limits that prevent immediate public release of detailed information in many cases.

Council and staff agreed to ask the police and fire chiefs to develop a proposed status-report format and timeline that could be provided to council after major incidents, in order to give elected officials a predictable cadence for follow-up information without undermining investigatory or privacy requirements.

Ending — Staff will follow up with the public-safety chiefs and return with a recommended status-report template and guidance on thresholds for press conferences and media alerts.