Louisville Metro Emergency Services Announces A New Safety Tool In Time For Kentucky Derby Week

Louisville Metro Emergency Services Officials are providing attendees of Derby Week events with a new safety tool designed to provide an additional layer of safety and security to measures already in place surrounding the Pegasus Parade, the Kentucky Derby Festival events, the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby.

LENSAlert now allows citizens and visitors to text predetermined keywords to sign up for alerts at major events in the city. The system provides real time alerts and notifications and will inform event attendees of severe weather, hazardous material incidents and other emergencies.

Attendees are encouraged to Opt-In prior to the event, by texting to 67283 and using one of the keywords below:

Keyword / Event
Parade – for notifications at the Pegasus Parade
Festival – for notifications at any Kentucky Derby Festival event
Oaks – for notifications at the Kentucky Oaks
Derby – for notifications at the Kentucky Derby
DerbyWeek – to sign up for all of the above at once

Emergency Services Director Jody Meiman states, “Use of LENSAlert’s Opt-In feature will be coordinated through the Incident Management System from the Emergency Operations Center and is meant to communicate emergency information only and will be the trusted source of information should a major incident occur. We expect a safe and secure Derby Week but based on events that are occurring around the world, we would be remiss if we did not use tools such as LENSAlert to assist in safely securing the public.”

In the event of a major incident, Emergency Services, the Kentucky Derby Festival and Louisville Metro Police Department will post a LENSAlert Opt-In graphic on social media in order to direct inquiries to the LENSAlert Opt-In feature.