Washington County rolls out Regroup system to replace Code Red, expands language support

Amber Forin of the county's emergency management team told the committee Washington County has transitioned from Code Red to a platform called Regroup after a fall cybersecurity breach limited alerting options.

“We were able to launch on April 1st,” Forin said, adding the county now can offer mass notifications across the entire county rather than only the unincorporated areas. She said the system supports weather alerts and offers more than 100 language options; staff prioritized Marshall, Haka Chin, Burmese and Mong for local outreach.

Forin said enrollment is available from the county's main website and that all county employees have been added to the system; usage has increased since launch as staff and residents sign up. She emphasized the county has 24/7 vendor support from Regroup and that the change was prompted by cybersecurity concerns with the prior platform.

Justices thanked Forin and urged residents to sign up; one member asked about data security and address handling. Forin said she would follow up with technical details from the vendor on how address and personal data are secured and shared.

County staff will continue outreach via social media and news interviews and will report enrollment metrics to the committee as the rollout continues.