Officials in highly populated Ada County in southwest Idaho are looking for a new phone alert company.
The Ada County Sheriff's Office tells the Idaho Statesman that the system hasn't been working as promised by My State USA.
Spokeswoman Andrea Dearden says that two out of three alerts have failed this year.
On Jan. 28 an alert went out on landlines in some neighborhoods in Boise about a missing teenager but the alert contained no message.
Then on Feb. 6, police wanted to alert residents about a mountain lion being tracked but technical problems prevented the message.
Dearden says the failures didn't involve major events, but county officials don't want to take chances in emergencies such as floods or wildfires.