[Update: Nov. 15, 2021] Last Thursday, after issuing the press release, the Police Department decided against sounding the new alarm tone in a neighborhood and opted to first test it in a remote area outside the city to see how loud it was and how far it carried, police spokesperson Sergeant Ethan Ragsdale said on Monday. The tone sounds at over 100 decibels, he explained.
The Police Department may be the first in Santa Barbara County to add the "hi-lo" tone, he said, a new tool for notification that the department has been pursuing since SB 909 went into effect in 2020, not just since the Loma Fire.
The test will be part of a public service announcement the department will issue in the coming weeks, Ragsdale said, which will let people know to tune into trusted media sites or to visit emergency websites to learn about the emergency, where it is, and what to do.