University of California, Davis officials say an emergency alert system meant to get emails and text alerts to 70,000 students and staff failed on the night a Davis police officer was shot and killed near campus last week.
A pair of alerts reportedly went out on January 10 after Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona was shot, but only 20,000 people received those alerts. The alerts also were distributed through UC Davis social media platforms throughout the night.
Rave Mobile Safety, the vendor providing the WarnMe-Aggie Alert emergency warning service for UC Davis, has taken responsibility for the technical issue that affected the ability of emergency managers to send alerts to the entire campus, according to an online statement released by the university.
UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May said in the statement that "the system failure" was unacceptable and officials will ensure the alerts work in the future.
Rave Mobile Safety is a Massachusetts-based firm. The problem was fixed and a campus-wide alert was sent later that evening.
Rave said in a statement that it takes full responsibility for the system failure.