Paul Sanftner is a public information officer for the city of San Leandro. He can be reached at psanftner@sanleandro.org.

Public managers across the country carry a profound responsibility: Keep their communities safe, informed, and prepared. Whether it’s an earthquake, wildfire, or flood, the speed and reach of our communications can mean the difference between chaos and calm, injury and safety, or even life and death.

Yet one of the most powerful platforms in the digital age — YouTube — lacks a basic, critical feature: an emergency alert system for local governments.

During the devastating atmospheric river storm that struck the San Francisco Bay Area in January 2023, I published a short emergency alert video filmed in the city’s emergency operations center. I paid to geofence it to residents on YouTube. Over 26,000 people saw the video within hours. The reach was immediate, targeted, and effective. Imagine what we could do if YouTube gave us a dedicated emergency alert tool, free of charge.

Right now, YouTube is the world’s second-most visited website and a go-to source of information and entertainment for millions. Our residents — across all income levels, languages, and abilities — spend hours on the platform every day. In emergencies, they’re already there. But we have no official way to reach them via an emergency alert message on YouTube.

Unlike Facebook’s Local Alert or Nextdoor’s Alert tool, YouTube does not offer local governments a way to publish time-sensitive, geotargeted emergency messages that can interrupt live video content. The absence of this feature is a serious gap in our nation’s emergency communication infrastructure.

A YouTube emergency alert system would allow verified agencies — cities, law enforcement, fire departments, or emergency operations centers — to immediately share critical updates during disasters. It would improve equity by reaching multilingual and lower-literacy audiences more effectively than text-based systems. It would cost the public nothing and require no new infrastructure: just a commitment from one of the world’s most powerful platforms to help save lives.

As a public information officer, I’ve seen firsthand how technology can protect people — or leave them behind. In the next major crisis, will we have the tools to act fast and reach everyone?

YouTube has an opportunity — and a responsibility — to be part of the solution. Let’s build this now, not after the next emergency hits.

This article first appeared in PublicCEO on June 30. To provide your support, please contact Paul Sanftner at psanftner@sanleandro.org or visit SanLeandro.org/AlertButtonSupportLetter. As of Oct. 15, 2025, 32 organizations and individuals have signed the support letter.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Western City, the League of California Cities, or its members. Are you interested in submitting an op-ed on an issue important to city leaders? Send a short pitch to editor@westerncity.com.