A Follow-Up on MH Alerts

On January 1, the City of Maryland Heights and the Maryland Heights Police Department launched a test message of the new emergency notification system. The database that was tested included publicly available information gathered by the company, Everbridge, who powers the notification system. This test message was successfully sent out to 16,390 recipients around 1:00 p.m. on New Year’s Day. The message included a text message (where applicable) or a voice phone call with the recording, “This is a test message of the new Maryland Heights emergency alert system, MH Alerts.” 

Just five days later on January 6, Maryland Heights Police Department utilized this system to notify businesses north and south of Dorsett Road near Metro Blvd. to lockdown while officers checked the area for a suspect from a serious crime. The lockdown lasted about an hour. When MHPD had a location for the suspect and confirmed that he was no longer in the area, another message was sent out to the same recipients to let them know that they may release their business from the lockdown. Detectives were able to safely arrest this suspect approximately two hours later in a different city. 

The MHPD intends to keep using this tool to keep our community safe. There will be situations where a serious crime may occur and you will not receive a notification. "A radius of a crime scene can not be set in stone, every crime scene is different and requires a wide variety of circumstances to be considered," stated Officer Mancusi. "We also have to make sure to protect the integrity of the investigation."

Some of the reasons where you may not receive a notification are: the suspect(s) are contained, officers responding have established a perimeter and only those in the immediate area are affected and need to be notified, or officers have checked the area and concluded that there is no threat to the surrounding area.  

To ensure that you receive these emergency notifications to your preferred method of contact (phone call, text message, or email), sign up online at www.marylandheights.com/alerts, utilize the form below and mail it to Communications Division c/o Trisha Hall, Maryland Heights Government Center, 11911 Dorsett Road, Maryland Heights, MO 63043, or call (314) 738-2497. An address is required for weather alerts and emergency notifications that are sent within a specific area. As a reminder, this information is secure and is only accessed by a few City of Maryland Heights Communications and Police Department employees. Your information will never be sold or shared with others. The information you provide will only be used for emergency notification purposes. 

Even if you do not subscribe to this service, if there is a life threatening emergency, we are able to send an emergency notification out to those included in a database that contains publicly available information. If do not wish to receive these messages, you may block (314) 293-5605 on your phone. TIP: If you do want to receive these notifications and the test notification came through as “Possible Spam,” save (314) 293-5605 in your phone under the contact name “MH Alerts.” Our emergency messages will originate from this phone number.