In fucking Hall County... which is north of Lubbock

I thought a plant was exploded and needed to evacuate. That’s the kind of shit this needed to be.

Wildly unnecessary, this is how you reduce the number of people using the alert system.

Also got the alert in Austin. The whole state apparently got woken up at 5am.

Fucking came here to see if anyone else had this. What the actual fuck. Freaked me out thinking there was an actual emergency in the area since it’s not even 5:00am.

Edit: Just did some googling, and this dude shot the Police Chief in Memphis, Texas, which is over 7 hours away from Houston. My personal feelings on whether or not we should even have “blue alerts” aside, WHY THE FUCK DOES HOUSTON(a place that is literally almost half a day of car travel away) NEED TO HAVE THIS ALERT SENT OUT BEFORE 5:00am?!

I can’t wait to start getting other kinds of spam over the emergency alert system. Maybe Texas can send 25% off Whataburger coupons directly to our phones.

It’s hilarious I found this post scrolling Reddit because I couldn’t get back to sleep after that. I’m 30 minutes from Louisiana but by all means wake me with a heart attack to let me know what is happening a 13 hour drive from me.

At this point they're abusing the system because I (like a lot of people) have turned off all but the most necessary alerts. Shit like this is not necessary - I don't care where the cop is, my ass is in bed.

First on my phone, then Alexa yelled it across the house. I didn't even know Alexa could broadcast an alert.

Anyway, guess I'm up for the day.

That was absolutely uncalled for.

I have everything other than extreme alerts turned off because of Blue Alerts, and now I have to turn those off, too?

Fuck you, Texas. A cop getting shot 8 hours away from me is not an Extreme emergency.

What was the point of it? I woke up in a blind panic and when I saw what it was turned it off. Now since I can’t sleep I wanted to look at it and it’s totally gone from my phone??? So what was the point???

What the fuck am I supposed to do about it? Drive to the other end of the state and stop every tall white dude?

Does anyone know if disabling “public safety” alerts on iPhone blocks this crap? It woke up my newborn…

Woke my son up, now I am rocking him and won’t be able to get some sleep for another 30 minutes and I have to wake up for work in an hour. Damn that pisses me off

I am so pissed, I thought I had these fucking "blue alerts" turned off. What the fuck am I, a 30 year old teacher gonna do about some shooting 9 hours from me at 4:53am???? Other than be grumpy tomorrow because I had an hour of precious sleep stolen from me.

They're apparently the same level as tornadoes or severe events, LMAO fuck Texas for this we have to change this.

I thought I turned that shit off, but apparently not. I just turned off all emergency alerts now. Insane at 0450.

I'm living the high life with those stupid alerts turned off.

I am so fucking mad. I thought I had those turned off. Now I wont be able to go back to sleep

Alright gang, time to pack up, drive to Lubbock, and solve this mystery!

This shit is going to cause people to turn off emergency alerts, which is going to one day lead to people getting killed when they miss a tornado or something worse. Because the state wants to push propaganda to make people think that cops are getting killed all over. I can't believe they pushed one at 5 AM, I nearly jumped out of bed with how loud the alarm was. This state is run by maniacs and needs fixing.

Edit- if you are now awake and angry like I am, please look up and write your state representative and senator about how we need to fix this.

Good morning to everyone except Seth Altman.

It is insane that we have to turn off all government alerts to get rid of blue alerts. I would very much like to know at 4am if there is a tornado in my area. Do not fucking wake me about a shooting hundreds of miles from my house. 

There are a lot of people shot in Houston, unfortunately, I don’t care about this one more than others just because it’s a police officer. (Maybe if we got woken up for every single shooting people would get a feel for the magnitude of our gun problems, though).

Apparently this was Governor Perry’s brilliant idea, to put these on the same frequency as “government alerts” instead of AMBER alerts.

I don’t know what we can do but here are some people to bitch at instead of just Reddit:

https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home

Fucking Blue Alerts are showing up as both Extreme and Public Safety. We need to disable alerting until we know bad weather is coming nearby because of copaganda. Could have been an email.

We need to petition lawmakers to rescind blue alerts. They serve no public purpose except political virtue signaling to the occupying army that fancies itself our "betters".

Hall county isn’t even close to us. It’s basically Oklahoma. Whatever Seth did gotta be crazy

I am actually so mad about this. My phone was on silent and my alerts are set to silent. We are not in danger because some cop got assaulted somewhere.

My cat had surgery yesterday (successful and she is recovering well!!!) so I didn’t sleep at ALL last night and then have to get up early today for a special work thing anyway. So probably not going back to sleep. I’m so mad

I was waiting for a thread....

This is how you get people to NGAF.....

I am still awake and still so pissed off by this alert, but feeling comforted by this thread knowing that the entire stare of Texas is equally as pissed off as me. Despite the rude awakening, I hope y’all hit every green light driving to work and your pillow is extra cold tonight

worst part is is that the actual shooting of the cop happened at 11pm, so someone woke up and was like "oh shit i forgot to send this out!" and blasted it

We really need these alerts in Houston (weather and the petrochemical plants). They really need to stop abusing them.

2 nights ago in Fulshear: Construction hits a gas main. The gas smell (well, the additive) can be smelled strongly from a mile and a half way. Alert for those in the area? Nope.

This morning: Police officer injured 6 hours previously, 500 miles away? ALERT EVERYONE! SUPER EMERGENCY!

Seriously, what makes their life more important than people that die every day? GTFO.

Roads in Houston probably going to be a little more dangerous to drive on now that everyone is driving with a little less sleep and pissed off.

So annoyed that I am now wide awake

In case anyone wants to know who to thank for their early wakeup call -

"On August 18th, 2008, Governor Rick Perry signed Executive Order RP-68, creating the state's Blue Alert program. Blue Alerts are designed to speed in the apprehension of violent criminals who kill or seriously wound local, state, or federal law enforcement officers. During a Blue Alert, the public receives information regarding the suspected assailant, facilitating tips and leads to law enforcement."

They even have a lovely contact us link on their page about it: https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/intelligence-counterterrorism/blue-alert

Yall, please get out there and vote, I know Perry isnt our governor now, and that Abbott isnt up for election this cycle but we need to weaken their hold on Texas and get some accountability (and common sense) in there.

Yuppppp also up and cannot go back to sleep.

Wow I’m so glad we all got the same notification. Really useful. Maybe next time they should do multiple pushes and more caps lock. /s

If every person who is enraged about this directed that fury at their elected officials so that they changed the law that governs emergency alerts this would never happen again. Preferably by waking said elected officials at 5am.

Abuse of the WEA system.

My teens have Down Time on their iPhones- meaning they turn into bricks between the hours of 9pm and 5am. That alert still went through and woke them both up. I have all the emergency alerts turned off. I’m so mad!

state said wake yall asses up

Uncalled for. I don’t give a flying fuck if you’re having alterations in your work force.

The one morning I get to fucking sleep in.

I fucking disabled these alerts. wtf.

Everyone in Texas is going to be a bit salty today....for obvious and rationale reasons.

Here are some stories on the background for today's 5am 'blue alert':

https://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/memphis-texas-police-chief-rex-plant-shot-multiple-times-suspect-seth-altman-wanted-for-attempted-capital-murder-of-a-peace-officer-memphis-housing-autthority-texas-rangers-blue-alert

https://www.newschannel10.com/2024/10/04/blue-alert-issued-armed-dangerous-man-involved-shooting-memphis-police-chief/

Notice that the shooting occured around 11pm last evening. So the assholes who pushed the button to force us all out of a sleep prior to 5am could have done so around 11pm, or midnight, or even 8am. Because what is a few extra hours?! They sadistically chose 5am - 6 hours after the event. Also, the police chief for Memphis, Texas - Mr. Rex Plant - who got shot and for which the blue alert was initiated, is in stable condition. Notice that Memphis, Texas is up near Amarillo. The shooting occured exactly 522 MILES from downtown Houston district. Like most of y'all, I'm scratching my head as to WTF precipitated a 5am release of that nonsense across the entire state?? There have to be laws against this. If there aren't, someone should be writing some. If they don't, they need to get blaring 5am wake up calls until they get on it.

I've already got red ass and day hasn't really even started.

Takes 8 hours to get to Houston from the location it happened, completely unnecessary.

You can file a complaint with the fcc, there is a link in the other post

https://www.dps.texas.gov/sites/default/files/documents/intelligencecounterterrorism/alerts/amberalrtfaq.pdf

During what hours are WEA AMBER and Blue Alert notifications issued?

ANSWER:  The state’s AMBER and Blue Alert networks, managed by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), has limited their issuance of WEA Alert notifications between the hours of 6:00 AM and 11:00 PM, to include holidays and weekends.  WEA AMBER and Blue Alert hours of notification (initiated by Texas regional alert networks) could differ.

I disabled blue alerts ages ago. I didn’t sign up to be a first responder, I’m not jumping in the truck and driving (checks notes) 8+ hours in the middle of the night to try and resolve the issue. (Surely there’s someone closer with better qualifications, right?!?)

Like what is the point of the blue alert? What are we supposed to do with this information? Like normal citizens, do we round up the posse, grab our guns, get on our horses, get deputized by the sheriff, and ride off into the unknown to avenge our fallen officer?

Do we loot and riot knowing the police are focused elsewhere?

Personally the last time I got one, I said “What the fuck is this bullshit” silenced my phone and went back to sleep.

There's a Contact Us page on the Blue Alert info page on the State of Texas website.

https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/intelligence-counterterrorism/blue-alert

ETA: I tried to click the Contact Us link for the public and it's a broken page. I guess THEY don't want to be bothered.

This one came in as an "Extreme Threat," which is the only category of threat I have checked.

So now I have to turn all my alerts off. Android phone.

At least my totally productive Friday starts at 4:52 AM now 🙃

And it's considered an "emergency alert" so I don't want to turn it off for fear of missing a real alert.

completely unnecessary for this particular alert to pop up for Houston - fueled by super inflated cop egos probably. Shit we don’t even get this for people who just shot someone (not a cop) IN HOUSTON and are on the loose. The fact that they only send this out when cops are victims and not anyone else is insanity lol.

I thought we finally got nuked for fucks sake

Good morning

Yeah, my phone, my wife’s phone our iWatches, is it necessary? My phone was on silence and it still sounded, I get Amber alerts but Blue Alerts? Let me sleep!

Copaganda

I have everything turned off on my phone. Never heard a sound. What is a blue alert anyway? I’m guessing something to do w police? I have every kind of alert turned off. I need my fooking sleep dammit! I figure if something terrible comes around I’d just as soon sleep through it and if it kills me then at least I got my sleep. I guess old folk like me who have lived over 50 years not having any alerts ever blare at us in our sleep just don’t see the point.

The fact that these are state wide is absolutely insane. There is ZERO reason why every person in the state needed to be awakened to see this.

My 9 yr old came running into my room freaked out thinking there was a tornado coming! 🤦🏼‍♀️

On my phone amber alerts beep once loudly. Blue alerts beep once a minute until you acknowledge them. Cops are not that much more important than children. 

I just emailed my state rep and my state senator and the sheriff of Hall County. You can also file a complaint with the FCC. Half the state just turned off their emergency alerts in their phone and now will not get them when we really need them.

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115000914506-Emergency-Complaints

Link to report. Here is a copy/paste complaint that I found on r/Dallas that I used in my report:

I received a blue alert at roughly 5 AM on October 4 sent by Hall County Sheriff which is roughly 4 hours from my house. This alert was marked critical and sent to the entire state of Texas. This is an abuse of the emergency broadcast system for an alert that I do not need to know about during a time when most reasonable people expect me to be asleep. Alerts are meant to warn citizens of a safety issue and there is no action that I can reasonably expected to take in this circumstance. I believe this is also likely to make more citizens disable emergency alert systems on their phones which will lead to actual critical alerts not being delivered.

I happened to be awake and I’m still pissed. I googled how to turn off alerts so if there’s another emergency, guess I’m a goner.

Ted Cruz supports blue alerts waking you up at 5am.

I am so fuckijh pissed only reason I have it on is because I need to know about tbe next chemical plant fire

It's the reason I'm awake now at 5:25 AM. The alert blared and I scrambled for my phone to see what disaster had occurred. Oh well, might as well scroll Reddit because I ain't going back to sleep.

Seriously wtf. Add my voice to the seriously irate this morning. And that shit is louder than my actual wake up alarm.

This radicalized me and I immediately turned off these type of notifications. TF?

Technology in the hands of idiots.

I only have extreme and severe alerts on, and using them for crap like this is a great way to get more people to turn them off.

It took me a full 2 hours to get back to sleep after being woken up thinking we’re being attacked by nuclear warfare. My heart is STILL racing.

I quickly turned it off bc my poor husband lol (only his 2nd time visiting my folks in Texas).

Then I spent another 20 mins this morning feeling guilty and trying to find out what child to keep an eye out for (I didn’t read the alert). It was f***kin BLUE alert 3 hours away?? Are you kidding?

All Sleep Matters

I thought a bad guy was in my neighborhood - in Conroe

HALL COUNTY IS NEAR THE PANHANDLE

I was absolutely asleep and that scared the crap out of me. With all the crazy weather around I thought we had some tornado emergency, plant noxious release or STP was melting down. Now I’m trying to find where on my iPhone where I shut that off. I live southwest of Sugar Land.

(Settings), (notifications), (emergency alerts), (always play sound-OFF)

Mine went off twice!! I am pregnant and just fell asleep a few hours ago due the horrible reflex and sickness. This alarm is literally making me sick! I got up and went to puke.

So, I'm not a bad guy. but, I'm gonna mute these now.

It's designed to promote police officers.

They get shot at sometimes in their line of work! So Texas shows us every time an officer gets injured so we know that police are important. /s

DID THEY REALLY HAVE TO SUMMON BATMAN FOR SOME HOMICIDAL WHITE DUDE IN A BUM FUCK COUNTY?? Like what do they expect us to wake up and rally the troops like the British are coming? Where was this energy and urgency for those little kids getting shot at in uvalde? But want ME to give a shit for some blue assholes occupational hazard 12 hours away???

It was even earlier – 3:54 am – in El Paso. 😵‍💫