“What merits a police alert?”

“Dear PoPville,

What’s the criteria for an alert to be sent through AlertDC? I live at 18th and D NE and there were 5-7 shots fired around 7:30PM tonight. Police were on the scene and were clearly aware, though there was no alert. This is a busy time and place where there are often children out playing, people out and walking around, etc. so I was surprised when no alert came through. Why are some crimes alerted and not others?”

In my experience regarding shots fired, MPD and AlertDC will only issue an alert if a person is hit by a bullet. Occasionally they may issue an alert if there is property damage although that seems to be prompted by resident requests. Regarding guns (or knives) another time alerts are issued by MPD or Alert DC is when an armed robbery or carjacking occurs. For example from last night:

ROBBERY HOLD UP GUN at 2120 hrs in the UNIT block of ADAMS NW street . Lookout for
LOF 2 B/M BOTH WEARING ALL BLAC https://t.co/MeUfMgzty4

— AlertDC.io (@AlertDCio) October 7, 2016