Virtual Video Presentation
Past Events
- June 17, 2024 - Virtual Tribal Consultation on Proposed MEP Event Code
- June 13, 2024 - Tribal Consultation on Proposed MEP Event Code, Phoenix, AZ
- June 3, 2024 - Tribal Consultation on the Proposed MEP Code to coincide with the National Congress of American Indian Mid-Year Convention and Marketplace, Cherokee, NC
- May 14, 2024 - Tribal Consultation, Wyandotte, OK
The new Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP) code will help find missing and endangered persons – including Indigenous persons - by expanding the types of critical alert messages that can be delivered to the public over television, radio, and wireless phones. MEP code alerts will be delivered over the nation's Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system to help law enforcement agencies galvanize public attention to missing and endangered people of all ages.
In 2023, more than 188,000 people went missing who fall outside of the criteria for AMBER alerts. The new MEP code for missing and endangered persons will enable a more rapid and coordinated response to missing and endangered person incidents by allowing alert originators to use the EAS and WEA to issue a wider range of alerts, including Ashanti Alerts, to get the word out about missing persons.
The MEP code could be particularly beneficial to Tribal communities, where American Indians and Alaska Natives are at a disproportionate risk of violence, murder, or vanishing. Likewise, the MEP code could help mobilize public responses to missing Black persons who make up roughly 35% of missing persons over 18 years old despite being 12% of the U.S. population.
The rule and requirements adopted in the Report and Order will become effective on September 8, 2025. This timeframe recognizes the time and effort necessary for equipment manufacturers and Commercial Mobile Service Providers (CMSPs) to prepare their equipment and networks to be able to process alerts sent with an MEP event code over EAS and WEA. The Report and Order also permits EAS Participants and participating CMSPs to update their software to add the MEP event code on a voluntary basis. Once implemented Tribal, state, and local law enforcement agencies who send out alerts are known as "alert originators" and use the EAS will be able to select “MEP” as an event code type.
To gather input from Tribal communities on the implementation of an MEP event code, the FCC’s Office of Native Affairs and Policy hosted Tribal consultation on the NPRM. Consultations were held virtually and in-person in May and June 2024, and summaries of the presentations made during the consultations were filed in the official record for the proceeding. The "Past Events" section on this page has more information about ONAP's consultations on this proceeding.
FCC documents in this proceeding:
- Federal Register: The Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts (September 6, 2024)
- News Release on the Report and Order (August 7, 2024)
- Report and Order (FCC 24-83)
- NPRM FCC 24-30 (March 15, 2024)
- Public Notice (DA 24-372) announcing public comment deadlines
- Public Notice (DA 24-379) announcing initial Tribal consultation