City of Boston, MA, Case Study

City of Boston

The City of Boston has a complex emergency communications landscape. With dense populations, millions of visitors, and frequent high-risk events (including severe weather, large-scale public gatherings, and infrastructure disruptions), Boston’s public safety and law enforcement teams needed a modern toolset that could keep pace with the city’s evolving demands.

The city also had to meet its Language Access Ordinance obligations by translating public alerts into 11 languages. Additionally, it wanted sub-organization alerting (such as for the Youth Employment and Opportunity Office) and large-event communications (e.g., the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Sail Boston) to support diverse operational needs.

Solution

The City of Boston implemented Genasys Protect in partnership with AlertBoston, integrating 30+ sub-organizations, multi-channel capabilities, language translation, and future-planned SMS short-codes for opt-in/opt-out use.

The city deployed Genasys Protect to support pre-scripted event alerts, so that the emergency operations management team can rapidly send prepared messages rather than drafting during each event. The language translation module enables alerts to be issued in 11 of the most spoken languages within the city, thus fulfilling the Language Access Ordinance requirement.

Using Genasys Protect, the city can target specific neighborhoods, event zones, or infrastructure areas with tailored messaging. For large-scale events such as the 2026 World Cup or Sail Boston, the City is establishing SMS short codes and an international-traveler welcome guide to promote communication channels and integrate with the public alerting ecosystem.

Problem

Boston’s existing mass alerting and notification system was not equipped to handle the city’s communication complexity. It could not provide the level of targeting needed to reach different neighborhoods, visitors, or the more than 30 sub-organizations responsible for alerting their own groups, making it difficult to ensure that the right audiences received timely information.

During high-visibility incidents and severe weather, departments needed tightly coordinated communications, but the legacy system did not support that level of collaboration, limiting the city’s ability to deliver consistent, location and event-specific messaging.

Results

With Genasys Protect in place, the City of Boston now communicates more precisely, efficiently, and inclusively. Emergency notifications are delivered via SMS, voice, and email simultaneously, reaching residents and visitors alike.

Pre-scripted event templates reduce deployment time for emergency operations teams, and zone-based mapping allows public safety units to target high-risk areas with pinpoint accuracy.

The multi-language capability supports community engagement and fulfillment of access obligations. For large-scale public events where coordination, visitor language diversity, and real-time information are critical, Protect supports both day-to-day community alerting and high-risk scenario readiness. By giving residents and visitors clearer, event-specific information, the system has helped reduce avoidable 911 calls from people seeking updates during major incidents.

The unified messaging also fosters collaboration across departments and agencies enabling rapid decision-making. In sum, the city has advanced its protective communications posture, improving awareness and communications for the Greater Boston Area and reducing the risk of mis-targeted alerts or missed audiences.

City of Boston: By the Numbers