KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) announced Monday that the local Kalamazoo Community Alert System will be transitioning to the Federal I PAWS Emergency Alert System on September 30.
The department says that I PAWS is an “integrated Public Alert & Warning System.” This system will allow all county residents to be notified during a county emergency, and subscribers in the old system have already been notified.
The department adds that the local Kalamazoo Community Alert System was a redundant emergency notification system which required financial support and only notified a limited (500) amount of Kalamazoo County Community members and media outlets.
Additionally, this system was supported by a private Kalamazoo Company who no longer can provide the needed costs to maintain the system.
“While we are thankful for the previous system, the I PAWS System is free of cost and will be able to notify all Kalamazoo County residents,” representatives said in a statement.
This system is under FEMA and is used as a local altering system that provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public through mobile phones, television and local radio stations. Police say this system will work just like the previous system for the same kind of emergency alerts, only all county citizens will be alerted and not just subscribers.
The KCSO Emergency Management Division adds that it is set up with I PAWS and will oversee the program when it is needed.
Additional information on the program can be found at this link.
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