Case Study: Newton Police Department achieves rapid, area-specific mass notification to keep residents informed during the Boston Marathon attack with OnSolve's CodeRED

CodeRED mass notification assists during Boston Marathon attack

The Newton Police Department needed to rapidly inform residents and runners after the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and during the subsequent regional lockdowns. They turned to OnSolve’s CodeRED mass notification system to deliver urgent, location-specific public safety alerts and keep their community informed throughout the evolving crisis.

OnSolve used the CodeRED high‑speed notification infrastructure to send targeted phone calls, texts, emails and mobile app alerts; across Boston‑area clients this included more than 228,000 calls, tens of thousands of texts and emails, and 700 CodeRED Mobile Alert notifications in the first 24 hours, with nearly 2 million calls delivered by clients before noon the following day. For the Newton Police Department, OnSolve’s system enabled geographically precise messaging during the marathon route and the April 19 lockdown, supported by 24/7 in‑house monitoring that ensured messages went out despite network congestion.

Newton Police Department

Bruce Apotheker

Spokesman