Spike in neighborhood alerts

I live in Washington DC. There has been a sudden spike in the number of neighborhood alerts. Mulitiplication by factor of 10 or more, and much more dramatic than past shared notifications. Gunshot warnings all the time. Has anyone else had this experience? It seems to have spiked around the time that law and order became the key theme of one of the political campaigns. I am concerned that the Ring system is being used to stir fear and panic for electoral purposes.