Schumer joins call for updates to mobile emergency alerts

The No 3. Senate Democrat, Charles Schumer joined the chorus of New York officials calling for changes to a key mobile emergency alerts system after bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey.

In a letter sent Monday, Schumer pushed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to make it possible for such messages to be longer and include richer content.

{mosads}“Though this resource has provided great assistance in emergency and terror situations in New York and across the country, much work remains to be done in order to modernize the system and bring it into the 21st century,” Schumer said.

“Accordingly, I applaud your efforts to improve the system and I ask you to expedite enhancements, such as extending the character limit to the maximum, allowing the use of multimedia images, and improving locational accuracy, so that citizens can be as informed as possible during times of risk.”

His move follows a lobbying effort by New York City officials at the FCC ahead of a commission vote on whether, and how, to upgrade the Wireless Emergency Alerts system. The push follows the decision by authorities in the city to send an alert earlier this month telling the public they were looking for bombing supsect Ahmad Khan Rahami.

Investigators quickly closed in on Rahami after a bomb detonated in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan and sent a first-of-its-kind wireless alert to aid their efforts as they searched.

“WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old-male,” the alert said. “See media for pic. Call 9-1-1 if seen.”

The FCC vote was long-scheduled, but the mid-September bombing has put the spotlight on a previously obscure battle over the future of the alerts system. 

As of last week, according to an FCC official, the item before the commission would extend the maximum character length of an alert from 90 to 360 and allow links in AMBER Alerts for missing children. Another part of the item would allow them to formally consider whether to add pictures and video to the alerts at a later date.

But New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials are hoping that the agency will move to add multimedia this week.

The commission is set to vote Thursday on the item. It can be edited up until it comes up for a vote.

The wireless industry is worried about implementing the changes, some of which they say would tax mobile data networks. Trade group CTIA said in a phone call with the commission last week that “liberal use of URLs by alert originators will also increase data usage beyond the network traffic ‘spikes’ that already occur in the wake of these events and in response to these alerts,” according to a filing.