Cascade County has canceled its new contract with the CodeRED emergency notification system, which was scheduled to begin today, Nov. 14.
County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter said that due to this week’s system outage with little communication from the service provider was cause for a lack of confidence in the system.
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The county, with Great Falls Fire Rescue and Great Falls Police Department had been planning a test of the system on Nov. 12, but the system outage, noticeable since at least Nov. 10, force a postponement of the test.
In October, Cascade County Commissioners approved a three year contract for CodeRED, set to run Nov. 14 through Nov. 13, 2028.
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The contact total was $30,334.26, divided equally as $10,111.42 for each of the three years of the contract term.
The system, provided by OnSolve, is an emergency communication program used countywide to notify the public of emergencies, but is also used internally by Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, Great Falls Police Department and Great Falls Fire Rescue.
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On Nov. 13, Slaughter sent a letter to OnSolve canceling their contract.
Since the company failed to notify the county or provide updates on the outage, it was “deeply troubling” and the company was “wholly unable” to provide the contracted services, county officials wrote that they were rescinding the contract.
Municipalities across Colorado and California have been reporting CodeRED system outages this week.
Slaughter said he’s working a temporary public notification system through IPAWS, while they work on a longer term solution for internal communication.
