statewide radio board · • policy (du-bois/mcdonald ) o fcc rule making updates (multi-lingual...

STATEWIDE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS BOARD INTEGRATED PUBLIC WARNING AND ALERT SYSTEM COMMITTEE

Thursday, January 19, 2017 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Chair: Ulie Seal

WEBEX connection information below: Meeting number: 741 620 427 Meeting password: IPAWS Call-in toll-free number: 1-888-742-5095 Conference Code: 172 933 5103

MEETING AGENDA

Call to Order Approval of Agenda Approval of Previous Meeting’s Minutes

• November

Reports of Standing Committees

• Policy (du-Bois/McDonald) o FCC Rule Making Updates (Multi-lingual EAS Participant Survey) o FCC Initial Review on the Nationwide EAS Test Performed on September 28, 2016

• Infrastructure (Dooley) • Public Information (Amber Schindeldecker)

Other Reports

• Public Alerting Authority Best Practices guidance—online version preview, Linda Muchow, Alexandria Technical & Community College

Old Business

• Review of the 2016 Accomplishment of the IPAWS Committee Work Plan – Chair Seal • Membership—appointments to workgroups to replace retiring members – Chair Seal

New Business

• Review and discussion for best practices for a “Blue Alert” as pertaining to WEA and EAS—Kris Rush, BCA

Other Business

• 2017 Committee Meeting Dates: The third Thursday of every other month at 1:00 p.m. via WebEx unless noted.

o January 19 o March 16 (Face-to-face at tPt) o May 18 o July 20 o September 15 (one week early) o November 9 (one week early)

Adjourn

November 2016 Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Committee Page 1

STATEWIDE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS BOARD

INTEGRATED PUBLIC ALERT AND WARNING SYSTEM

November 10, 2016

MEETING MINUTES ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ATTENDANCE MEMBERS, REPRESENTING PRESENT (Highlighted): Chair: Ulie Seal, MN Fire Chiefs Association Vice Chair: Michael Martin, MN Cable Companies John Dooley, Committee Coordinator/ HSEM Kate Rush/David Kravik, BCA Dana Wahlberg/Cathy Anderson/Jackie Mines DPS/ECN Amber Schindeldecker – DPS Communications Dan Hartog, Minnesota Sheriffs Assn. Todd Krause/Joe Calderone, National Weather Service Bill Schmidt/Don Sheldrew, MN Dept. of Health Jim duBois/Steve Woodbury, MN Broadcasters Assn. Bryan Green/Terry Stoltzman, AMEM Amy Hass, Xcel Energy Scott Williams, Metro Radio Region/Ramsey County Vacant– NE Radio Region Nancy Shafer/vacant, NW Radio Region Don Heppleman/vacant, Twin Cities Public Television Lillian McDonald, TPT/ECHO Minnesota Bryan Gorman – Region 5 Mike Bromberg – Southeast Radio Region Denison Hanson—MPR Patrick Waletzko – Central MN RAC Diane Lind—Dakota County BJ Kohlstedt--Lake County Emergency Management Joel Glaser, Ampers Steve Ewing – Southwest ECB Kelly Kukowski, NW, Kittson County Sheriff’s Office Susan Ebnet, Charter Communications Rich Hall, SE Region/Freeman County Ed Snetsinger, Tribal Representative *Members attending are marked with yellow highlight.


Guests reporting Name Representing Carol Salmon, ECN Marcus Bruning, ECN Rick Juth, ECN Mary Borst, Mayo Bob Hawkins, DPS Joe Newburger, HSEM

CALL TO ORDER Chair Seal calls the meeting to order at 1:02 p.m.

AGENDA Glaser makes a motion to approve the agenda Lillian McDonald seconds the motion. Motion carries. MINUTES McDonald makes a motion to approve the minutes. Glaser seconds the motion. Motion carries. REPORT OF STANDING COMMITTEES

Policy (duBois/McDonald) Lillian McDonald reports on an FCC Multi-lingual EAS Query. The FCC is polling for information from broadcast stations to find out 1) what efforts/actions have been taken by local/state to provide EAS alerts in languages other than English; 2) what are future plans by locals/states to take action/efforts toward multi-lingual EAS alerts; 3) any related, pertinent information including EAS multi-lingual pilots, demographics, translation technology, etc. The FCC for several years have been hearing from several multi-lingual groups that are not happy with EAS alerting being in English only. There are some programs across the country that have taken action on this, including in Minnesota. The FCC has decided to initiate a collection of data. They will be collecting the information over the next year and will be reporting out. She has heard that by 2019 some decisions will be made about English and Spanish alerting in both the broadcast and the wireless world.

McDonald says there are enough crises on regard now, Katrina, New York, the I-35 bridge collapse, where communities were left out because of our system not supporting other languages and other things, such as centralizing information. Fortunately, with the IPAWS system in place there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel on how to come to an agreement on how to move this forward in an equitable way. At the policy level, in Minnesota we will want to consider how we will write this into plans going forward, including into our statewide EAS statewide policy. We have best practices but we might consider a goal of making those more complete and giving more guidance to broadcast stations. There was discussion about this group creating a template to survey broadcasters.


Infrastructure (Dooley) John Dooley reports that on September 28 there was a nationwide EAS alert test. It was a shortened version. The FCC collected data through their Emergency Test Record System. They want to have broadcasters to say what time they received the test. There is no known date if the data will be released. It took 18 months to release the data on the 2011 test. The FCC claimed test was an overall improvement over the one in 2011. Earlier this week, U.S. Cellular had an issue. They were doing a test but it was accidently sent as a live alert. They released the following statement: “While conducting an upgrade of the U.S. Cellular’s Wireless Emergency Alert platform, a FEMA test alert was inadvertently broadcast to our customers across our entire footprint. That test alert will no longer be deployed, and we apologize for the inconvenience and concern the test may have caused.” We still have worked to do in educating the public about IPAWS. IPAWS Status by County. Dooley shows a map with the updated status. A few more counties have been added and have gotten their certificates installed. Todd County went green. Rice, Steele and Freeborn Counties have gotten their certificates but are waiting for FEMA and to get them installed. Chair Seal says are working on reaching out to the counties that are green to try to actualize the use of IPAWS and do some testing, first the counties along the rail corridors and then the others.

Public Information (Amber Schindeldecker) Amber Schindeldecker reports that on the EAS test day, September 28, she did a live Facebook video and hundreds of people tuned in to view it. They put the camera on the equipment by John Dooley’s desk and as the tones were sounding, people were able to view and hear it. She set up the video with information about the purpose and value of the test. We had some follow up questions. She also posted the video on Instagram and it received several hundred hits. We also got a lot of twitter and Facebook posts out to alert people that this was happening and that it wasn’t an emergency. She has been working with John Dooley to update the IPAWS map and getting it on the website. On September 26 the Office of Communications did a blog on Wireless Emergency Alerts and other ways they can be utilized in addition to severe weather situations. That was prompted by New York sending out the WEAs for the bombing suspect and having a swift response as a result. We promoted that on our ‘What’s New’ and social media channels as well.

She is working on an ECN social media communications plan that includes IPAWS. She would like to use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram more frequently. Anyone out in the field using alerts, please send her pictures of the behind the scenes work that is being done. If you have anything going on, feel free to send her a quick email. It doesn’t have to be perfect, she can work with something basic. With the ‘What’s New’ posts on the SECB and ECN pages, she will work and updating those more regularly. If you have ideas don’t hesitate to reach out.


Jackie Mines says she has asked Linda Muchow who works on our online training to work with John Dooley and would like to ask Schindeldecker to review the material. They are thinking about putting in a sample test and request that PSAPs test this once a month. Chair Seal says he thinks training is a good idea but stresses that not many PSAPS are at that level yet. There are quite a few PSAPs that have their certificates but still haven’t actualized yet. So there is more work to be done before very many could do the training.

SPECIAL REPORTS

Wireless Emergency Alerts: Amendment to the Rules (Published in the Federal Register 11-1-16) John Dooley presents a PowerPoint on the Wireless Emergency Alerts: Amendment to the Rules Regarding the Emergency Alert System and will send the slides out after the meeting.

Synopsis: A. Alert Message Content 1. Increasing Maximum Alert Message Length from 90 to 360 Characters

• No multiple 90-character messages • Message concatenation would be problematic because “messages are not guaranteed to be received

by the device in the correct order”

2. Establishment of a New Alert Message Classification (Public Safety Messages)

• Does not expand the definition of “emergency” • Public Safety Messages will only be eligible for issuance in connection with an Imminent Threat

Alert, and AMBER Alert, or a Presidential Alert

3. Supporting Embedded References and Multimedia

• Allows for Voluntary Early Adoption by CMS Providers • Urge all alert originators to take appropriate steps to ensure the preparedness of their web

hosting service before initiating an Alert Message that contains a URL

4. Supporting Spanish-Language Alert Messages

• Provide a framework to ensure that Spanish-language Alert Messages will be processed and displayed properly

• Displayed on and only on WEA-capable mobile devices where the subscriber has specified Spanish as their preferred language

B. Alert Message Delivery

1. Logging Alert Messages at the Participating CMS Provider Alert Gateway

• Participating CMS Providers required to keep records for 12 months • Participating CMS Providers are also required to make alert logs available to emergency

management agencies that offer confidentiality protection at least equal to that provided by the


Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) upon request and only logs pertain to alerts initiated by that emergency management agency

• rural

2. Narrowing Geo-Targeting Requirements

• Best approximates standard we adopt today • Providers would be able to approximate the target area of overshoot with the following:

rural = 18.5 miles; suburban = 5 miles; urban = 2 miles

3. Presenting Alert Messages Concurrent with Other Device Activity

• WEA-capable mobile devices to present WEA Alert Messages as soon as they are received (Currently you won’t receive a notification if you are on an active call or data session.)

C. Testing and Outreach 1. Supporting State/Local WEA Testing and Proficiency Training Exercises

• Require participating CMS providers to support state/local WEA tests • Would allow for selective testing option

2. Testing the NCE Public Television C Interface Back-up

• Primarily assigned to FEMA and Public Television Broadcasters

3. Facilitating WEA PSAs

• Allow federal, state and local, tribal and territorial entities, as well as “non-governmental organizations in coordination with such entities

• To use the attentional signal common to EAS and WEA to raise public awareness about WEA • WEA PSAs that use the WEA attention signal must make clear that it is being used in the context of

the PSA

FCC Final Comments

• Nationwide participating CMS Providers’ subscribers should have greater confidence that WEA Alert Messages they receive are intended for them as of February 2017

• Participating CMS Providers’ subscribers should expect to be able to receive Alert Messages in Spanish by 2019

• By June 2019, expect to see 360-character maximum alerts on 4G LTE and future networks

• Public safety messages

• Alert messages that contain embedded references

• State/local WEA tests presented as soon as they are received


0LD BUSINESS

Committee Membership and Participation Chair Seal adds that Joel Glaser has been added to the committee. Carol Salmon reports that she includes the committee attendance at the end of the year for the committee to review where there are gaps in participation or vacancies, etc. New Business TPT Response System

Lillian McDonald reports that tPt public television is giving full time attention to emergency response systems, in part because of the history between Twin Cities Public Television and ECHO Minnesota. ECHO came to us back in 2004 to develop and create a set of programs and resources in multiple languages with a focus on health, safety and emergency preparedness. That work culminated last year when we were able to pilot the use of television crawls and voiceovers in warning and alert fashion on broadcast utilities alongside emergency managers in September of 2015. After that pilot, we decided it was time to put full time energy behind the emergency response system. McDonald’s full time position at tPt now is dedicated to working through the emergency response system role. It is a new department at tPt. The focus will be on the weather channel for start. The broader mission and vision are: The Emergency Response Mission: Bridge communication gaps so public safety officials can broadcast alerts for English Second Language (ELS) viewers. The Emergency Response Vision: Position the WX channel as a trusted resource so more Minnesotans are healthy, safe and ready for emergencies. The problem is that today we have so much more media. Public safety challenges: Competing information sources No centralized warning system (until IPAWS) EAS is optional for broadcasters 80%+ of social media in reaction to a crisis is false not everyone uses mobile/internet cell towers crash in a crisis more than English needs PBS has a long tradition of working with public safety to provide information. A tradition of service though the civil defense sirens, the EBS, Emergency Alert System (EAS) and now IPAWS. PBS is the backup system behind the scenes when cell towers are not getting the information they need. Through the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) project, PBS provides the spectrum needed.

America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) set aside spectrum for emergency responders supporting the first nationwide, high-speed, broadband network dedicated to public safety.


The future holds ATSC 3.0, which will allow broadcasters to simultaneously deliver high-quality signals to mobile devices as well as television sets.

On the weather channel, we have two transmitters and four--soon to be five--channels. We have capabilities to get more mass messaging out through our systems. We serve 29 counties in the coverage map, which is more than 3 million people. 40% of the population is ESL. We have a simplified weather graphics package right now. We have piloted the auto crawls in four languages on the screen with voice-overs. We have an old Accuweather system that handles a couple of alerts. Could WX channel be more? We think we can. We know we can improve our radar data. We have piloted multi-lingual alerting. Can we do real time E-R-S streaming? Can we be the additional tool in the public safety toolbox and brand ourselves over time as an official public information source. PBS is already trusted in the community. We have received an HSEM grant to advance some weather channel goals over one year:

1. Keep WX channel on the air 2. Develop a procedure/plan for emergency activation and scope of services 3. Conduct -1-2 activation tests 4. Explore replacement radar data provider 5. Improve 4 language text/voice-over content for emergency broadcasting 6. Recommend future capabilities and costs for potential sustainable use by public safety supported

stakeholders

We will be working with Metro Region 6 on this effort. The forecast is that the grant gives us a year head start. We plan to meet with stakeholders to clarify market niche (broadcast, digital or both?). We are watching and being watched by FCC/FEMA (English Spanish WEA/EAS by 2019?) We are talking about forming or joining a task force to drive sustainable outcomes (MN Broadband, MN FirstNet). We have a twelve year history of working in partnership with many agencies.

ANNOUNCEMENTS Meeting Schedule: third Thursday of every other month. Next meeting will be January 19. March will be the 5 year anniversary of when the committee began.

MEETING ADJOURNS at 1:55 p.m.

626.96 BLUE ALERT SYSTEM.

Subdivision 1. Establishment. The commissioner of public safety shall establish a Blue Alert systemto aid in the identification, location, and apprehension of an individual or individuals suspected of killingor seriously wounding a local, state, or federal law enforcement officer. The commissioner shall coordinatewith local law enforcement agencies and public and commercial television and radio broadcasters to providean effective alert system.

Subd. 2. Criteria and procedures. The commissioner, in consultation with the Board of Peace OfficerStandards and Training, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, the Minnesota Chiefs ofPolice Association, the Minnesota Sheriffs Association, the Minnesota chapter of the National EmergencyNumber Association, the Minnesota chapter of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials,and the commissioner of transportation, shall develop criteria and procedures for the Blue Alert system. ByOctober 1, 2015, the commissioner shall adopt criteria and procedures for the Blue Alert system.

Subd. 3. Oversight. The commissioner shall regularly review the function of the Blue Alert system andrevise its criteria and procedures to provide for efficient and effective public notification.

Subd. 4. Scope. The Blue Alert system shall include all state and local agencies capable of providingurgent and timely information to the public, together with broadcasters and other private entities that volunteerto participate in the dissemination of urgent public information.

Subd. 5. Additional notice. The commissioner may notify authorities and entities outside of the stateupon verification that the criteria established under this section have been met.

Subd. 6. False reports. A person who knowingly makes a false report that triggers an alert under thissection is guilty of a misdemeanor.

History: 2015 c 65 art 3 s 36

Copyright © 2016 by the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota. All Rights Reserved.

626.96MINNESOTA STATUTES 20161

MINNESOTA BLUE ALERT PLAN

CRITERIA

To activate a Blue Alert, the following four criteria must be met:

1. A law enforcement officer must have been killed or seriously wounded by an offender(s) or is missing while

in the line of duty under circumstances evidencing concern for the law enforcement officer’s safety.

2. The investigating law enforcement agency must determine that the offender(s) poses a serious risk to the

public or to other law enforcement officers and dissemination of available information to the public may

help avert further harm or assist in the apprehension of the suspect.

3. A description of the offender; their vehicle or other means of escape, including vehicle license plate or

partial license plate, must be available to broadcast to the public.

4. The lead investigating law enforcement agency of jurisdiction must request to issue the Blue Alert.

Process for ACTIVATION

To activate the Blue Alert, the following steps must occur in this order:

1. The lead investigating law enforcement agency of jurisdiction will call the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal

Apprehension’s (BCA) Operation Center, 651-793-7000. The Blue Alert point of contact is manned 24 hours

a day, seven days a week.

2. The MN BCA’s on-call Special Agent will work with the investigating agency to offer assistance, ensure the

activation criteria have been met and determine if the alert will be sent and displayed regionally or

statewide.

3. The MN BCA will work with the investigating agency to prepare information for public release, including

suspect and/or vehicle information, as well as agency contact information and will work to activate alert.

4. The MN BCA will contact the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to develop the message

content using the MnDOT approved template, which includes vehicle information, license plate number

and other identifiers.

5. The MnDOT will display the message until the offender(s) is captured or as determined. The alert will be

displayed on dynamic highway message signs on all requested highways unless a traffic emergency occurs,

which requires a motorist safety message to be displayed. MN DOT also will record a Blue Alert message on

the 511 system when the Blue Alert is activated.

6. The same activation steps will be used if there is revised vehicle information or a broadcast area is changed.

7. Once the MN BCA is notified that the offender(s) has been captured, the MN BCA will contact the

appropriate parties to cancel the alert.

Each activation will be reviewed by a committee of state agency partners and law enforcement representatives to ensure that criteria and goals are met and that each activation took place in a timely fashion.

MINNESOTA BUREAU OF CRIMINAL APPREHENSION 1430 MARYLAND AVENUE EAST, ST. PAUL, MN 55106

PHONE: 651-793-7000 WWW.BCA.STATE.MN.US

PUBLIC NOTICEFederal Communications Commission445 12th St., S.W.Washington, D.C. 20554

News Media Information 202 / 418-0500Internet: http://www.fcc.gov

TTY: 1-888-835-5322

DA 16-1452

Released: December 28, 2016

PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU RELEASES ITS INITIAL FINDINGS REGARDING THE 2016 NATIONWIDE EAS TEST

PS Docket No. 15-94

This Public Notice provides an initial overview of the nationwide EAS test results and highlights several opportunities for strengthening the EAS. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) and the National Weather Service (NWS), conducted a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) at 2:20 PM EDT on September 28, 2016. The nationwide test was designed to assess the reliability and effectiveness of the EAS, with a particular emphasis on testing FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), the integrated gateway through which common alerting protocol-based (CAP-based) EAS alerts are disseminated to EAS Participants.

The test also provided the Commission an opportunity to evaluate improvements made to the EAS since the 2011 nationwide EAS test and to improve its ability to monitor the performance of EAS Participants during nationwide EAS tests. At the direction of the Commission, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (the Bureau) launched the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS), an electronic filing system and related database, on June 27, 2016. Using ETRS for the first time, EAS Participants nationwide registered accounts and submitted identifying information regarding their participation in the EAS. In the hours following the nationwide test, EAS Participants submitted “day of test” results that indicated whether they successfully received and retransmitted the test alert. EAS Participants submitted detailed analyses in the weeks following the test that specified how they received the alert and identified any complications they experienced during the test.

Key Observations from Initial Test Results

The Nationwide EAS Test was successful. Initial test data indicates that the vast majority of EAS Participants successfully received and retransmitted the National Periodic Test (NPT) code that was used for the test. The improvements made to the EAS using the lessons learned from the 2011 nationwide EAS test and the implementation of ETRS appear to have significantly improved test performance over what was observed during the 2011 test:1

Over 21,000 radio stations, broadcast television stations, cable systems, satellite services, and other EAS Participants in all 50 states and the U.S. territories participated in the nationwide test.

1 It is noted that the Bureau is continuing to accept late-filed test results in ETRS at this time. These observations may undergo changes as EAS Participants continue to file and the Bureau conducts a more in-depth analysis of the test results.

2

This is a 26% increase in participation from the 2011 nationwide test (16,731 forms filed in 2011).

94% of test participants successfully received the test alert. This a 12% improvement in success rate over 2011 nationwide test (82% received in 2011).

85% of test participants successfully retransmitted the test alert.

69% of test participants reported no complications in receiving or retransmitting the test alert.

Many EAS Participants reported that the test alert that they received featured the high quality audio from the CAP-based alert that FEMA distributed via IPAWS.

For the first time, 74 EAS Participants retransmitted the IPAWS-generated Spanish language version of the alert.

Reports from the PSSC proved effective for collecting feedback and should continue to be used for future EAS tests.

Opportunities to Strengthen the EAS

From the data submitted by EAS Participants to ETRS, Bureau staff has identified several areas where the Commission could take steps to potentially strengthen the EAS. For example:

Some EAS Participants experienced poor quality audio and were not able to deliver the Spanish language alert because they received the test from an over-the-air broadcast source before their EAS equipment performed its regular check of the IPAWS Internet feed (which typically occurs every 30 seconds). Requiring EAS Participants check the Internet-based IPAWS feed upon receiving a broadcast alert and transmit the corresponding CAP alert, if available, would ensure that the most timely and content-rich version of the alert is broadcast. This would be particularly important for time sensitive alerts where seconds matter like earthquake early warnings2. The CAP alert would contain a crystal-clear digital audio file as well as any available text or audio files in languages other than English.

Some people with disabilities reported difficulty receiving or understanding alert text or audio. EAS tests can be made more accessible by applying to EAS tests the accessibility rules that already apply to live EAS alerts.

The preparations for the test highlighted shortfalls in some state EAS plans. Some plans were difficult for EAS Participants to locate, while others presented monitoring obligations and other information in a manner that EAS Participants found difficult to implement. The Commission can take steps to further facilitate the centralization and standardization of plan information.

Some EAS Participants did not receive the alert because they did not properly configure or maintain their equipment. The Bureau, in coordination with State Emergency Communications

2 See Earthquake Early Warnings Whitepaper(https://transition.fcc.gov/bureaus/pshs/eas/Earthquake_Alert_WhitePaper-120216.pdf) published by Federal Communications Commission.

3

Committees, state broadcast associations and other stakeholders, will use the test results to provide guidance to those EAS Participants that experienced technical difficulties.

This test was conducted in an environment that posed a low threat for cyberattacks. A system whereby EAS Participants would integrate basic cyber security guidelines into the EAS equipment readiness rules so that they could self-assess and self-correct vulnerabilities in their facilities would harden the EAS against the range of cybersecurity threats that is generally present for actual alerts and tests.

Together with FEMA, the Bureau will continue to analyze the results of the 2016 nationwide EAS test and release more detailed findings and recommendations when available.

-FCC-

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