Okaloosa County tests new alert system

OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - School safety is something Okaloosa County is always trying to improve.

A new alert system will sound the alarm not only on school campuses but also in surrounding neighborhoods.

“Following Marjory Stoneman Douglas in South Florida a few years ago, we’ve really been working on our school safety and our superintendent Marcus Chambers has made that a priority, our school board has made that a priority, so it’s another layer of security in terms of notification in our schools,” assistant superintendent of Okaloosa County schools Steve Horton said.

Horton said the system will provide critical information to the community.

“It’s always good to have redundant systems in cases where our cell towers are clogged with traffic, we want to make sure that this piece with the mass notification in our loudspeakers is available,” Horton said.

The school board partnered with county commissioners and the sheriff’s office to get the system running.

Sheriff Eric Aden said the alarms will help get information out fast.

“We chose the schools, we partnered with the schools to put them on there because they’re also strategically located in different areas of our community all over the county,” said Aden.

It’s a situation officials hope to never be in, but they said you can never be too prepared.

“It gives them information and information is knowledge,” Aden said.

The alert system will be funded by the half-cent sales tax in Okaloosa County.

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