Detroit Alerts 365 System Notifies Residents of Emergencies in Real-Time 

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Whether it be navigating fallen power lines in your neighborhood or construction-related traffic during a morning commute, residents can access real-time updates of emergency situations with Detroit Alerts 365. 

In 2021, the city rolled out the new electronic emergency notification system to streamline interdepartmental communications to best provide immediate alerts of safety situations and community awareness events. 

“The big picture is just keeping Detroit safe,” said Hilton Kincaid, deputy director of Homeland Security & Emergency Management, which oversees the Detroit Alerts 365 system. “That’s what we’re doing, staying prepared in advance. The time to get geared up is not when an incident is occurring, it’s way before.” 

On a national scale, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a public warning system run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other partners that allows for important information to be broadcast through television, radio, wireless cable systems, and more. This provides the President the capacity to address the American people within 10 minutes of a national emergency. 

Kincaid and his team worked with the Detroit Police and Fire departments to craft an alert system that streamlines EAS messaging while designed with Detroit-specific emergency preparedness in mind. 

Detroit Alerts 365 is operated by CodeRED, an emergency notification system used nationwide by emergency service teams and municipalities. 

The system is free to use and allows residents to opt-in to the type of media they want to use to receive alerts, including telephone, text message, email or social media via Snapchat or Twitter. Users can choose language preferences that reflect the multiculturalism of the city, including options in English, Spanish, Arabic and Bengali.  

Notifications will be targeted to specific neighborhoods that are found to be impacted by a particular situation. This allows for relevant messaging to be directed to individuals depending on their location and relieves other residents from being overwhelmed with a stream of information that doesn’t pertain to them. 

CodeRed provides a mapping tool known as geo-fencing for municipalities to focus on the area of impact.  

 “Geo-fencing allows us to draw a diagram, a circle, a polygon, a rectangle, around a certain area and only the area affected will be notified of the situation,” said Kincaid. “That is how you section off the city for what you need to get and you fix it off such as this area needs to know about this sinkhole, this area needs to know that the buses are going to be blocked because of road construction.” 

Impact areas are determined by the emergency management team through intelligence information sharing with other city departments and are also formulated by an observed trend of residents calling 911 to notify officials of an ongoing issue. 

Some of the most common alerts residents can expect are road and traffic issues, including open manhole covers, sink holes, road erosion and construction-related blockage, gas leaks, severe storm warnings, and positive community awareness events.  

Detroiters Encouraged to Sign up to Stay Informed  

As of August 29, Detroit’s Homeland Security & Emergency Management team reports 6,170 registrations for Detroit Alerts 365 since it launched, 3,454 of the sign-ups are by city employees.  

With Detroit’s population at over 600,000, the city’s emergency service teams are encouraging more residents to sign up and take advantage of the service to stay informed and safe. 

Raymond Solomon is the director of the Department of Neighborhoods and works closely with the Detroit Alerts 365 system to identify at-risk situations and distribute the information to residents.  

“For me personally, there was an incident a few weeks ago were we had an active shooter in the city,” said Solomon. “Police were on a man hunt looking for him. I was actually at a family function in my backyard at a barbeque and was able to get that notice because I signed up for it. At the time, I was able to get the kids inside, it helped ease a lot of anxiety of an unfortunate situation. I was grateful we received that notice that there was an armed, dangerous person in my area.” 

Solomon said some residents have questioned the security of their private information should they share their location and other personal details with Detroit Alerts 365. He assured Detroiters that their privacy will be respected and will only be shared between the system and the CodeRED operating system.  

“The focus is around safety,” said Solomon. “There is no surveillance function and that’s something we requested to ensure it’s just emergency notices.” 

Detroit Alerts 365 is available for those who live, work or visit Detroit and provides a free CodeRED mobile alert app to download and opt in. 

 For more information on how to sign up, visit detroitmi.gov/departments/homeland-security-emergency-management-detroit/emergency-preparedness/detroit-alerts-365.