Was Umpqua's mass notification system working?
By Amy Canfield
Updated Wed October 7, 2015
The mass notification systems at Umpqua Community College in Oregon may have failed when a gunman killed nine people and injured another nine on the campus, according to a newspaper account.
The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that three associate professors said they did not receive a notification on their computers, and two of them said that, even being enrolled in campus alert system, they did not receive any text messages as promised under the system. They said they did receive one warning “sent manually” from a secretary after police arrived, the newspaper said.
Umpqua college leadership told the paper it is too early to tell about the extent—if any—of emergency notification malfunctions.
If we've heard anything, time and time again, especially from end users at our TechSec conference, it's that all the best security equipment in the world is for naught if proper protocol is not in place.
Granted, this mainstream media article doesn't get into the details, and I truly hope an emergency notification meltdown didn't happen. It's just such a tragedy, and this is where emergency notification comes into play in such an important way.
Security Systems News sends its condolences to those affected by this terrible event.
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