Why Residents Ignore Emergency Alerts, and What Agencies Can Do about It

Opt-in notification systems only work if residents opt in, and most communities are reaching a fraction of the people who live there. In El Paso and Teller Counties, Colorado, officials recently reported that only about 120,000 of the area's 700,000 residents were enrolled in the local alert system, a gap public safety leaders called an active safety concern. A related study of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) opt-out behavior, published in 2025 in the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, found that some states see opt-out rates approaching 30 percent for certain alert types, with frequency, relevance, and message content named as the leading drivers.

Low enrollment isn't evenly distributed, either. The residents least likely to sign up — new movers, older adults, non-English speakers, and transient populations — are often the ones most vulnerable when an emergency happens. An emergency notification system is only as strong as the share of the community connected to it. 

The same research points to a second, related challenge: alert fatigue. When alerts are sent too often, cover too broad an area, or feel irrelevant to the recipient, residents begin to disengage (silencing notifications, deleting apps, or ignoring messages altogether.) One widely cited example is Amber Alerts: reporting from CBS News found that the states issuing the most alerts also had the highest opt-out rates, with Texas topping the list at nearly 30 percent. Residents interviewed described sleeping through late-night alerts because they had learned, over time, that most notifications didn't apply to them.

That pattern is the opposite of what agencies need. A resident who has muted notifications because of one poorly targeted or unclear alert may not re-enable them in time for the emergency that actually affects their block, their evacuation zone, or their water supply. 

Public expectations have also shifted. Residents are used to receiving real-time, personalized information from their banks, airlines, and delivery apps, and they increasingly expect the same precision and relevance from their local government. When emergency communications don't meet that bar, the impact goes beyond one missed alert. It shapes whether residents believe their agency's communications are worth their attention at all.

That trust operates on three levels: trust from the public, trust from agency leadership in the tools their teams use, and trust in the underlying technology to deliver the message reliably. Strengthening any one of these without the others leaves a gap, where alerts go unread, systems go under-enrolled, and confidence erodes.

Rebuilding engagement doesn't require a bigger budget; it requires treating enrollment and message quality as ongoing programs.

• Make enrollment a constant, not a campaign. One sign-up push rarely captures new residents, seasonal populations, or people who missed it the first time. Build your systems marketing into utility bills, permitting, school communications, and community events year-round.
• Target alerts as precisely as the system allows. Sending an alert to an entire county when only a few blocks are affected teaches residents that alerts don't apply to them even when the next one might.
• Write message copy for five seconds of attention. Residents skim alerts under stress, often in low light or while multitasking. CodeRED's five-second rule for alert writing is a practical framework for making sure the situation and the required action are clear immediately, every time.
• Communicate outside of emergencies, too. Occasional test messages, seasonal reminders, and plain-language updates keep the system visible and familiar, so the first alert a resident receives isn't the only one.
• Be transparent about how the system works. Residents are more likely to enroll — and stay enrolled — when they understand what they'll receive, how often, and how their personal information is used.

None of this requires a perfect technology stack. It requires agencies to treat trust as infrastructure; something that has to be built, tested, and maintained before it's ever tested by a real emergency. The agencies that invest in that groundwork now will have more residents enrolled, more alerts read, and more people ready to act when it matters most. 

Trust starts with the fundamentals. For a closer look at what to expect from a modern notification system, read our guide: Emergency Notification 101 for State and Local Agency Leaders. 

Read the Guide