Blue Alert for Clay County Deputy Confused All of Texas Last Night

Last night we received a Blue Alert, which in our area, we should have received. The entire state of Texas however, seemed a bit unnecessary.

In case you somehow missed it, a Blue Alert was sent out just after 11 last night, and this did concern us in Texoma. At the Jolly Truck Stop, a Clay County Deputy was shot during a traffic stop. The good news is that the deputy is fine and as of my writing, the suspect is still on the run. Their vehicle has been found here in Wichita Falls, but that's it as of now.

So last night, a Blue Alert went out about the shooting. A Blue Alert has been going out since 2008 in Texas. It is used to rapidly disseminate information to law enforcement agencies, the media and the public to aid in the apprehension of violent criminals who have killed, or seriously injured an officer in the line of duty. Blue Alerts can also be issued when a suspect poses an imminent and credible threat to law enforcement, or when an officer is missing in the line of duty.

So over in Clay County, yes, our area should have 100% received a Blue Alert to make us aware of this shooting of a deputy. However, this alert went out to the entire state of Texas. In 2021, you're telling me we have no way to lock down the amount of folks that receive these alerts? It's all of Texas or nothing?

Why are people in El Paso receiving alerts for a shooting that happened in our area? That's eight hours away! That would be like when I lived in Baltimore, Maryland and you would tell me I would get alerts for something that happened in Boston, Massachusetts. Especially when the alert sent out didn't give a lot of information.

Law Enforcement Blue Alert in this area was sent out to all of Texas last night. Seriously? the way that message comes in, you would think that would be in your town or the next town over. Not eight hours away. Yes, our area and I think even parts of the Dallas area should have been alerted.

San Antonio, Austin, Houston? Not at all necessary. Texas Department of Public Safety needs to find a way to concentrate these alerts. We're somehow able to do it for severe weather alerts, why can we not do this for the others as well? Below I am putting some of my favorite tweets from the confused Texans last night.