HONOLULU (KHON2) — The state experienced their fourth alert, and HPD’s second, since the inception of the Maile Amber system in Hawaii.
Clicking through the Maile Amber Alert on Honolulu cell phones on Tuesday took folks to social media posts by the Honolulu Police Department rather than to HPD’s official site or the city’s emergency information hub.
KHON2 asked HPD why this is.
“Twitter is the only tested social media format that allows open access to the public, meaning a person does not have to have an account during an Amber Alert activation,” said Missing Person Detail Detective Michael Garcia.
“Our research revealed there was a strong possibility that the Honolulu info and other HPD websites would crash during the surge,” Garcia continued.
The director of Hawaii’s Missing Child Center said other places do the same.
“That is often because, you know, social media accounts such as Twitter wouldn’t crash if they had, let’s say, a million people go into that site versus a website,” said Missing Child Center-Hawaii director Amanda Leonard