Nick Crossley on Building an Effective Alert and Warning Program

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola are joined by Nick Crossley, Director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for Hamilton County, Ohio, to explore what it truly takes to build and sustain an effective, public-facing alert and warning program.Nick shares how Hamilton County manages emergency communications across 49 jurisdictions, including the City of Cincinnati, while navigating county borders, interstate coordination, and cross-river messaging challenges. He breaks down the philosophy behind treating alerting and warning as the most public responsibility of emergency management—and why constant training, prescripting, and evaluation are critical to public trust.The conversation dives deep into:Building and maintaining a robust alerting and warning strategyTraining duty officers to confidently send Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) under pressureUsing the FEMA Message Design Dashboard (MDD) to improve clarity and reduce confusionApplying EMAP accreditation standards to alerting, communications, and documentationManaging message bleed-over across county and state boundariesLessons learned from real-world hazmat incidents, flooding, and shelter-in-place ordersPractical advice for small agencies and one-person emergency management shops just getting startedNick also shares why collaboration, borrowing templates, and cross-jurisdictional MOUs are essential tools for modern emergency management—and why continuous improvement is non-negotiable when lives are at stake.Whether you’re an emergency manager, dispatcher, public information officer, or policy leader, this episode offers actionable insights into how to design alerts that inform, protect, and empower the public when it matters most.Thank you to our sponsor, TheWarnRoom.com, for supporting this episode and helping advance best practices in emergency alerting and public communication.