Human error caused Robbinsdale shelter-in-place alert to be sent to entire county
A SWAT team is at the scene of a domestic standoff in Robbinsdale on Monday, April 22, 2024. (KSTP)
County officials say human error was the reason a shelter-in-place alert meant for just a small portion of Robbinsdale residents was mistakenly sent to all of Hennepin County on Monday.
The alert — sent at 7:34 p.m. — was related to a domestic standoff near the intersection of 36th and Broadway avenues, and Robbinsdale police say only people within a one-block radius of the incident were supposed to get it. The situation was resolved shortly after 10:30 p.m. Monday with only “very minor injuries” to those involved, police say.
Hennepin County officials provided an update on Tuesday, saying the alert was supposed to go out through the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, which is part of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). Instead, it was sent as an Emergency Alert System (EAS) alert.
“This occurred because of human error at HCSO’s Emergency Communications Facility (ECF). The staff member who sent the alert is certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to send these alerts, and HCSO has identified the step in the alert process that resulted in the mistake,” the county said in its update. “HCSO plans to contact the software developer with a suggested fix to make this type of error less likely, and ECF leadership is already working with Hennepin County Emergency Management to update our standard operating procedures related to these alerts.”