When emergencies happen, be the first to know. The Emergency Management and Public Safety Officials within Suffolk County use SuffolkAlert to send official, real-time alerts to the public with information about potentially life-saving actions they may need to take to keep themselves and their families safe. By signing up for SuffolkAlert, you are taking a large step toward improving your personal safety.

When an emergency occurs that meets the criteria for sending out an alert to the public, the Suffolk County Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services emergency dispatchers will gather the necessary information and push out an alert to the affected area. Alerts can be sent out county-wide to everyone who has opted-in to the system, or to a specific area or neighborhood for more localized events.

This service is provided by the Suffolk County Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services at no cost to the public; however, message and data rates may apply depending on your provider and phone services.

While SuffolkAlert is an excellent system, we cannot guarantee that you will receive notification in all cases. Disasters and emergencies are chaotic and unpredictable, and notification is dependent on external providers such as your wireless carrier or email delivery service outside the Suffolk County’s control. SuffolkAlert will use several means of communications to try to ensure that should any one communications method, technology, or delivery option be unavailable to reach residents, other methods will be used to improve the likelihood that citizens will see the message.

SuffolkAlert is available to anyone who lives, works, travels through, or visits the Suffolk County. The address can be your home location, work location, or any other location you care about.

You can visit your local library to sign up online for SuffolkAlert. Those who do not have computer access are also welcome to attend one of the many scheduled opt-in appointment with Suffolk OEM by calling 631.852.4900

You are not able to reply to texts or emails sent by SuffolkAlert. Voice messages provide a dial-back number to replay an alert message.

Follow the below steps to change your SuffolkAlert preferences (for example, to reduce the number of messages of a certain type, or to change the contacts used for each kind of message):

1. Go to the login page https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=NotifySuffolk for SuffolkAlert
2. Login using your SuffolkAlert username and password (If you’ve forgotten these, follow the instructions on the page under "Forgot Username or Password?")
3. Once signed in, click the "Preferences" tab at the top
4. Under "Notification Preferences", you can make changes to both the phone numbers and email addresses on which you want to receive SuffolkAlert messages by clicking or unclicking the checkboxes
5. You can also choose what alerts you want to receive and the method you wish to receive them by (text, voice, email)
   • For example, if you wish to turn off all messages regarding Transportation Disruptions, simply uncheck the box to the left of "Transportation Disruption"
   • If you wish instead only to receive emails for Transportation Disruption notifications, instead uncheck the "Text" and / or "Voice" choices, so that only “Email” remains checked

The frequency for which you receive alerts depends on the addresses you provide and the types of alerts you select to receive as well as the frequency of actual emergencies. Emergency alerts will only be sent when there is an immediate threat to life and/or property. Community notifications will be sent when the criteria for sending an alert are met.

This system is not intended to bombard you with information. The County will only send you alerts about the information you select to receive. To change your alert settings, login to https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=NotifySuffolk and edit your preferences.

If a call completes and is sent to your answering machine or voice mail system, a message is left. If a phone call is not answered or busy, the system redials your number several times.

Personal information provided to SuffolkAlert is private and only used to notify you for official Suffolk County communications and to support the Suffolk County’s emergency services.

Your information is not used for marketing purposes and will not be sold to telemarketers or data-mining organizations. A variety of "opt-in" mechanisms are available to ensure you are getting just the messages you want to receive, delivered via the devices and communications modes that you choose.

SuffolkAlert utilizes the highest standards in physical and computer security technologies and conducts regular audits to ensure all information is kept secure. Privacy policies are also outlined in the Terms and Conditions you review when you sign up to receive SuffolkAlert notifications.