The Navajo Nation is making progress on a public emergency alert system that can broadcast Amber Alerts and other notifications across the expansive reservation, tribal officials said.
The tribe will be using the federal government’s internet-based Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS, and the only thing needed now is software that will allow the system to be fully functional across its lands in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
Officials expect the system to be active within weeks, and training on issuing Amber Alerts will begin for law enforcement this month.
On the Navajo Nation, an Amber Alert system for the 27,000-square-mile reservation had been proposed years ago but was never implemented, despite the tribe having been awarded $330,000 in federal funding as part of a U.S. Justice Department pilot project.
Half the money was used to buy equipment such as megaphones and pop-up tents, but the rest went unspent.
