Case Study: Contra Costa County achieves unified, targeted emergency alerts to protect 1.1M residents with BlackBerry AtHoc

How Contra Costa County Protects over a Million People from Earthquakes, Chemicals, and More

Contra Costa County’s Office of Emergency Services (OES), part of the Sheriff’s Office, centrally coordinates emergency response for 1.1 million residents in a petrochemical‑heavy region of California. The agency faced fragmented, incompatible communications across jurisdictions and responders, creating risk of delayed or mixed messages during chemical spills, fires, floods and other life‑threatening events.

The OES implemented BlackBerry AtHoc (Alert and Connect) to integrate sirens, landlines, mobile, social and partner channels with geotargeting, pre‑built templates, two‑way internal callouts and detailed logging. The platform enabled branded, targeted alerts, faster evacuations (for example, a large evening fire), more efficient responder mobilization, higher resident registration (~13% vs. typical <1%), and ongoing system reliability and security while supporting broader hazardous‑materials safety improvements.

Contra Costa County

Heather Tiernan

Community Warning System Manager