SILVER ALERT on foot.

Currently, 37 states have some form of "Silver Alert." Silver alerts target individuals with cognitive impairments, but states vary on age requirements. Many restrict the alert specifically to senior citizens (60+ in WI, 65+ in TX), some states activate for adults under 60 if Law Enforcement verifies they lack the mental capacity to care for themselves.

Depending on where you live, the exact same scenario can trigger a different event name. For example, there is the Golden alert (KY), the Gold Alert (DE), Matties Call (GA), and SAFE Alert (AZ; "Seek and Find Emergency Alert"). Each named alert will require knowledge among the message senders about a statewide alerting type; it will also require local public knowledge about the alert type, the person in danger, and the actions to take to assist.

Some of these alerts will be issued as Wireless Emergency Alerts, in other cases, they will only be shared on highway message boards, local radio/TV via EAS, law enforcement bulletins, and social media. Some will use WEA and NOT EAS. Different states laws in each state mean different names, definitions, and approaches. It can be downright confusing.

Today's WEA of interest is a Silver Alert issued for a limited geographic area of Wisconsin.

360 character (top) and 90 character (bottom) Silver Alerts

Not being from Wisconsin, I was curious to know what "silver alert on foot" might mean.

Silver Alert in Wisconsin:

1. The missing person is 60 years of age or older

2. The missing person is believed to have Alzheimer's, Dementia, or another permanent cognitive impairment which poses a threat to their health and safety.

3. There is reasonable belief that the missing person’s disappearance is due to their impaired cognitive condition.

This defnition means there are some additional cues that could be included in a Silver Alert to aide community members to help them identify the missing person.

Cues could include:

• they might be disoriented and in need of medical attention;

• they may be unable to find their way home without assistance;

• they may be agitated or fearful.

In this case, however, it seems that "silver alert" is doing the work that a jargon word is designed to do - to tell the person with jargon knowledge that the missing person has these characteristics. Inside knowledge is great if you're only trying to recruit insiders to your cause. If a WEA is sent to a large geography with the intent of motivating people to help, using plain language will improve others' ability to assist.

There are a few other things to call attention to in this message. First, there is no message source. Given that we receive dozens, if not hundreds, of alerts and push notifications a day, the inclusion of source will help people to know that this is an important alert that requires attention.

NOTE 1 : if this message was sent as a public safety alert and a person has their phone set on silent, it will be delivered silently and will not override local phone settings. So there is no audio cue that tells people "pay attention," only the visual message itself.

Second, there is no information about when the person was reported missing - a key indicator of how far they may have traveled - especially if they are "on foot."

Third, there is no contact information for who to call if the person is found.

Fourth, there is no instruction on what we are supposed to do once we receive this message. It is fully reliant on jargon -aware people to know that they should 1) click the link for more information 2) search the area for the missing person, 3) call if they know where the person is or if they find him.

NOTE 2: In our research on AMBER alert messages, we tried to get people to click the link in the message to obtain info about the child. Fewer than 25% of participants clicked. Sure, that means that 25% DID click, but 75% did NOT. That's not a statistic I'd want to rely on for getting my message out.

We have a Missing and Endangered Person Style Guide that will be coming soon. In the meantime, ensuring that a missing person message addresses the same contents that would be found in a warning will get you one step closer to completeness. Also, leave out the jargon.

For more on effective messaging, be sure to download the Warning Lexicon.