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Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
Wait, are you saying the police now have the ability to push notifications to my phone without my consent? And without any way to opt out?
If my phone was on vibrate (as it always is and as all phones should be) would it make noise? It would still just vibrate, right?
I'm not sure I understand these people's complaints. So you had your phone on. The sound was on. Notifications were on. If anyone called or sent you a text or tweet or anything you had notifications turned on for, it would have made a noise right? So what's different about the amber alert?
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Originally Posted by 4x4
F-n people, eh? If your sleep is so precious, why don't you turn your phone off at night? I know why, in case of an emergency. But you only consider your immediate circle emergency worthy, right? An 11 year old girl goes missing and is murdered, but it's not your 11 year old girl, so not an emergency, right?
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Originally Posted by Ken0042
Is this something brand new? Or have we just not had an Amber Alert in Calgary since the Emergency Broadcast System was moved over to cell phones?
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I think I'll take a moment to address this.
No, Calgary hasn't had an Amber Alert since they've been moved to the EBS. Amber Alerts are rare as there are 4 criteria that have to be met, and more often than not, they aren't met. Amber Alerts are a rare thing, and are not just called for every missing child or we'd be getting multiple ones a day.
Next, whatever setting you have your phone on, doesn't matter (or shouldn't. as they are working kinks out of the system). The Emergency Broadcast System should go through every 'phone turned off/DND/Silent/Vibrate Only/Whatever" setting you have, with an attention catching noise. It's designed to be used in rare circumstances where having people ignore a warning is likely to cause more harm than good.
Now, one can argue the merit of having Amber Alerts considered to be sent out via the EBS, but the current situation is that they are, so if Calgary/AB/Canada has one that goes out that includes our area, we'll be getting it, regardless of the time of day and your phone setting.
And to Cecil's point specifically...no,
police can't do that. We don't have a 'ring up all the phones' button. But the federal govt has given police departments the authority to call up the telecomm's and ask/tell them to do it.