It is a program that has caught the attention of the highest echelons of the Department of Homeland Security. SAFE Washington, a unique emergency alert system created by and implemented in the Puget Sound region’s Jewish communities — including Mercer Island — has been helpful in not only giving the 40-member organizations immediate warnings about criminal incidents against local agencies, but also as a first defense against public health threats.

“When we have communicated and shared knowledge about things that have happened right on our campuses, we have been able to better protect our organizations,” said Larry Broder, executive director of Temple De Hirsch Sinai and a member of SAFE Washington’s core leadership team.

Members of SAFE Washington met with a group of law enforcement officials on Nov. 20 to explain the system as well as to get feedback on ways that they can improve communication and notification across jurisdictions. Mercer Island Police Department Operations Commander Dave Jokinen was also at the meeting.

“They explained what the organization was about and how we can work together,” he said.

Jeff Slotnick, president of security company Setracon and a founder of SAFE Washington, outlined the program to the officials, representatives from the cities of Seattle, Bellevue and Mercer Island, the King County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.

The program, he said, utilizes communications systems within the state and nationwide to ascertain whether there might be any threat — be it physical, technological or viral — that would require further action. While created for Seattle’s Jewish community, Slotnick said, it can be taken to any ethnic, religious or other type of discrete community.

There is “no cost to the community. All it takes is commitment and time,” he said.

Though SAFE Washington’s genesis is based in the aftermath of the shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in 2006, Slotnick said conversations about building something like it had been occurring prior.

“We found out there’s a much wider need for disaster resilience,” Slotnick said.

A briefing on the coalition has reached the chief of staff of Homeland Security, Slotnick told JTNews. That could allow the program here to be replicated anywhere. The Seattle Archdiocese is currently looking at implementing a version of SAFE Washington, he said.

SAFE Washington includes 40 Jewish organizations and synagogues, from Everett, to the north, to Tacoma to the south. Since even before the shooting, the federation, which maintains SAFE Washington, disbursed money from Homeland Security to apply to security measures, including training in learning best practices.

Organizations have received anywhere from $14,000 to $408,000 since 2005.

SAFE Washington is connected to several communications sources, including the Washington Interfaith Disaster Recovery Organization and the Northwest Warning, Alert and Response Network, a collaboration of government and private entities that deal with security and disaster preparedness. Were it not for the NW WARN system letting SAFE Washington in, “we would not be here today,” Slotnick said.

Broder said that since the system came online in September 2008, he sees more activity, but that might also be due to people actually paying attention.

“The more you test, the more you find,” he said. “Whenever we have an inkling that there’s an issue that should be reported, we get that out.”

Temple De Hirsch Sinai’s Seattle facility, which straddles Seattle’s Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods, is something of a nexus for possible criminal activity, Broder said.

SAFE Washington has been used to broadcasting images of people who have exhibited threatening behavior toward Jewish sites in the event that they show up at other Jewish agencies.

“Even if that person leaves the place, [if he] shows up somewhere else, we already know,” Slotnick said.

Slotnick also demonstrated to the officers how SAFE Washington responded to events nationwide. In July, within a minute of a Twitter posting announcing the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “we had 40 agencies on modified lockdown,” he said.

A shooting in the parking garage of a Sephardic synagogue in Los Angeles in October had a possible connection to the Seattle area, which also prompted an alert.

“When the shooting occurred in Los Angeles, we received communication within the Secure Community Network,” Slotnick said. “The report went out to all law enforcement in Washington state.”

SCN is a system that alerts Jewish communities nationwide to any issues around security or disaster preparedness.

Briefings from the Departments of Health on the spread of the H1N1 virus have also been spread on the network.

What became clear over the course of the meeting is that while SAFE Washington has been effective in transmitting information to its member groups — assuming those member groups act when necessary — mitigating circumstances can sometimes keep information from getting into the right hands at the right time. For example, officers charged with notification and understanding religious or ethnic communities’ needs often change positions, leaving no institutional memory or backup information.

“There’s this big gap,” said one officer in attendance. “Let’s address how we’re going to mitigate this gap.”

Detective Doug Larm of the Seattle Police Department said that with the 30 smaller police departments that surround Seattle averaging about 12 officers, having a network like SAFE Washington in place is a great concept, but “the only way this is going to work is communication and commitment,” he said.

That means already overstretched officers must be willing to take calls in the middle of the night or on weekends, and then act on that information. Given the economic realities of departments today and the pressures of working in law enforcement, it’s not always easy to find a point person to take on that responsibility.

“In the real world, it’s going to be based on communication, communication, communication,” he said.

Joel Magalnick is the editor of JTNews. For more information on SAFE Washington, visit www.jewishinseattle.org.