STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR Re: Amendment of Part 11 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding Emergency Alert System, PS Docket No. 15-94. Today, the FCC does its part to help promote the safety of our nation’s law enforcement officials and the communities they serve. We do so by facilitating the use of Blue Alerts, which can provide advanced warning of imminent threats to law enforcement. This is a crucial effort. Last year, 135 officers were killed in the line of duty and 21 of those were ambush-style killings. In many of these cases, the perpetrators posted imminent and credible threats to law enforcement officers ahead of time on social media, and some of them may have been thwarted by a coordinated National Blue Alert Network. In 2015, Congress directed the Attorney General to create such a network within the Department of Justice (DOJ) and to support state and local law enforcement as they work to develop and implement Blue Alert plans. But the lack of a dedicated event code for Blue Alerts in the Emergency Alert System (EAS) is one of the primary obstacles to more states adopting and using Blue Alert plans. Indeed, the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services has stated that creation of such a code is “the single greatest need of the National Blue Alert Network.” In today’s Order, we therefore adopt a new dedicated EAS event code to enable the transmission of Blue Alerts over the EAS and Wireless Emergency Alerts. This action should facilitate the delivery of Blue Alerts in a uniform and consistent manner nationwide and, in the process, increase the reach and effectiveness of these potentially life- saving warnings. I’m pleased that the Commission moved quickly to address this critical issue, and I thank the staff of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for their diligent work on this item. It has my full support.