City Replaces Code Red Alert System

City of Laramie officials are encouraging Laramie residents to enroll in its new emergency alert system.

On Friday, July 28^th, the city replaced the Code Red system  with the new Albany Countywide Alerts. The city contracted with Everbridge Inc. of Burlington, MA, for its high speed telephone emergency notification services. Citizens who enroll will receive hard line phone, cell phone, text message or email alerts in the event of an emergency or other situation.

Laramie Police Chief Dale Stalder said the new system will use current technology and allow the city to provide different alerts.

“We’ve been with our old vendor for nine years,” Stalder said. “A lot of technology changes have taken place during that time that made it beneficial to change our emergency alert vendor.”

Stalder said new technology will allow the Laramie Police Department to increase the reach of alerts by attaching them to the department’s Facebook page and other social media.

Laramie residents enrolling in the alert system will also be able to select different tiers of alerts.

“We have the ability to do a lesser type of alert depending on what people sign up for when they enroll,” Stalder said. “For example, in addition to an emergency alert, which everybody is always going to get, people can sign up for traffic alerts, road construction alerts, weather alerts, and that was something that was not available with our old vendor.”

Stalder said residents can sign up for Albany Countywide alerts online and links to the sign up page can be found on the Albany County and City of Laramie website.  Stalder said those who don’t have access to internet, residents can call the Laramie Police Department or the county EMA coordinator to be manually signed-up. Stalder said the information on the old Code Red provider was not transferable, so residents need to sign up again to receive new notifications.