'System Error' Sent Mistaken Alert During Emergency, Milwaukee County Said

MILWAUKEE, WI — Did you get an emergency alert on your phone Wednesday morning?

Many residents in Milwaukee County and beyond woke up to emergency notifications, but county officials said one was sent by mistake amid a real emergency between Milwaukee and West Allis.

The first notification wasn't sent by accident. Authorities put a shelter in place order into effect around 4 a.m. at S. 64th Street and W. Dixon Street in Milwaukee, after a Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office deputy was shot multiple times and left with non-life threatening injures.

See Also: Man Who Shot Deputy Found Dead: Milwaukee Sheriff

However, one alert appeared to be a fluke: Patch saw "ADD LONGER WEA MESSAGE HERE. REMOVE THIS IF NO LONGER MESSAGE EXISTS," pop up on phones as far as Waukesha around 11:20 a.m.

Several minutes later, another message let people know the shelter in place order had been lifted.

The message was sent due to a "system error," Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management dispatcher Lee Williams told Patch.

The current alert system doesn't let the office geographically target messages to specific neighborhoods in the county, office director Cassandra Libal said in a statement. The Federal Emergency Management Agency regulates the program, and the office is working with them and the vendor to address the issue.

The office sent out the first alert because children and other members of the public would start their morning commute in a few hours, but the alerts weren't meant for residents outside the county, Libal said.

"We do not intend to send alerts outside the County, but there is potential for alerts to be sent to cell phones just outside the county," but distribution of the message depends on cellular providers and tower locations, Libal added.

The county sheriff's office said in a statement that it doesn't manage the alert system for the county and isn't able to address the alert that didn't contain substantive content.