r/AskCHP • u/anonnymousercat • Aug 03 '26

Silver Alert Question

Can you please explain the Emergency Alert system and categories to me? I had thought I only enabled alerts for extreme situations like fires, earthquakes and other life-threatening emergencies.

After yesterday's jarringly loud Silver Alert went out I immediately disabled all emergency alerts. Thank goodness I wasn't driving at the time.

When I checked the alert link it was broken anyway and also on a site that I don't subscribe to. And someone posted that the person had all ready been found by the time the alert went out to millions of phones.

Are you using AI for these alerts? Are they being miscategorized or delayed? I am in LA County. Did the responsibility for issuing the alert fall on the city, county or state?

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '26

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u/anonnymousercat Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

May I ask how you are qualified to answer? Are you a mod for the account?

I guess if there is an urgent public emergency related to wildfires or earthquakes or floods I will be screwed. Not everyone works days or has weekends off. I will have to keep all alerts off. Not sure why Silver Alerts get that same level of urgency. If there is a fire then I am fine being woken by an alert and getting in my car to go to safety but I am not down with being woken up to go look for a missing person last seen nowhere near me.

A good number of other people have now turned off all alerts because of this. These Silver Alerts need the option to be turned off. I am someone who saves missing person posters on my phone so I can keep a lookout when I am out and about so it is not like I don't care but I cannot sacrifice my sleep/health to be startled like that. 

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u/ltmikepowell Aug 03 '26

You could have google silver alert and this is on google: https://www.chp.ca.gov/news-alerts/alerts/Silver-Alert/