Message was intended to be sent only to the Zebulon area

Around 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 13, an emergency alert was sent to all cell phones within Wake County announcing the arrest of a suspect in the manhunt that had been underway in Zebulon. Wake County is working with its emergency alert vendor and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to learn why the “all clear” message was sent countywide, while other alerts were sent just to the Zebulon area.

Wake County sent a total of three messages during the manhunt in support of the Wake County Sheriff’s Office. The first two messages were delivered to the Zebulon area as designed. The third “all clear” message was submitted to the distribution system with the same targeted area using a “geofence,” but the fence was not applied to the message. As a failsafe, the system automatically sends messages without a geofence to the entire county so potentially lifesaving information is not delayed.

“We recognize how alarming it can be to receive an emergency alert unexpectedly, especially late at night,” said Darrell Alford, director of Fire Services and Emergency Management for Wake County. “While our intention was to reassure the affected community that the suspect was no longer a danger, a system error caused the alert to reach a much broader audience than intended. We appreciate everyone’s understanding as we work diligently with our vendor and FEMA to prevent similar issues in the future and to ensure our alerts are precise and effective.”