The Washington County Division of Emergency Services has issued the following statement regarding an incident Wednesday morning on the Dual Highway in Hagerstown:

"At approximately 5:30 a.m., on May 2nd, citizens within a two mile radius of the Dual Highway were notified by the Emergency Communications Center, at the request of the Hagerstown Police Department of an active law enforcement event. The specific message was intended to notify citizens of the event, and law enforcement was encouraging citizens to contact the Hagerstown Police Department with any information that would assist in their investigation."

"In review of the utilization of our Emergency Alerting System, this message was accidently and erroneously sent through the wrong messaging format and to the wrong group of citizens. The intent of "EMERGENCY MESSAGING" is to notify citizens whereby immediate action is necessary for your protection of both life and health safety. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused."

"We have taken steps both internally and operationally to help assure that this should not occur in the future. It remains paramount that citizens continue to both support the system and continue to register and manage their particular notification profile for both emergency and standard notification."

For additional information, please contact the Division of Emergency Services at 240-313-2900.