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Board approves HQE contract to replace Code Red and launch "Nevada County Alerts"
Summary
After a nationwide Code Red data breach, Nevada County approved a contract with HQE Systems for an opt‑in community alert platform. Staff said legacy data back to March 2025 will be migrated and the county will run a rebranding and outreach campaign to sign up residents.
Nevada County supervisors voted unanimously April 14 to approve a contract with HQE Systems to provide an opt‑in emergency alert platform branded as “Nevada County Alerts.”
Alex Cubl, director of emergency services, told the board the move follows a nationwide Code Red data breach and the parent company's decision to decommission the platform. “In November of 2025, Code Red experienced a nationwide data breach prompting the vendor to suspend the platform...the vendor decommissioned the Code Red platform and forced clients to migrate to a different platform owned by the same parent company,” Cubl said. County staff said that in addition to replacing the opt‑in capability, HQE will enable better tools for vulnerable populations and allow users to register multiple addresses per account.
Sergeant Andrew Liller of the Nevada County Sheriff's Office, who helped vet vendors, said HQE scored highest in the evaluation and will make the signup process simpler. He said legacy registration data stored in Code Red can be migrated to HQE only back to March 2025 because of how the prior vendor stored records. “The data in Code Red will be migrated to HQE, but due to how Code Red had the data stored, the information only dates back to March of 2025,” Liller said.
Staff said the county prepared the backend and outreach plans pending board approval, and they plan a countywide test and many community sign‑up events over the spring and summer. Questions from supervisors about whether the county would continue to rely on other redundant systems received assurances from staff and the town emergency managers: the county will keep multiple redundant channels including wireless emergency alerts, the Emergency Alert System and local town systems such as RAVE.
The board approved the contract on a unanimous roll call; staff said the platform could be turned live promptly after the contract is signed and training completed.
What happens next: staff will migrate legacy registration data to HQE (back to March 2025), launch Nevada County Alerts signups, run outreach and training, and execute a countywide test to familiarize residents and partner agencies with the system.
