September 2, 2022
Press Release Provided
Beckham County Sheriff’s Office has released its new app designed to communicate and interact with the community it serves. The Beckham County Sheriff’s App is now available in smart-phone app stores.
“We were seeking a way to communicate better and more immediately with the people we serve,” said Beckham County Sheriff Derek Manning. “We have had some issues with the social media platform we had been using, and we believe this app will solve some of those problems and offer some features we couldn’t offer on a social media platform owned and managed by someone else.”
The Sheriff also noted that social media use varies from one age group and demographic to another, and the app will allow his office to focus the Sheriff’s Office message and mission on a platform easy to use for everyone.
Manning said one of the main features of the Beckham County Sheriff’s App is that it has a push feature which will allow his office to notify users with an alert whenever there is an immediate need for communication.
“Instead of posting something to social media and hoping it works its way through the community quickly enough, this app will alert everyone subscribed to it with an audible alert that lets people know we have important information for them,” Manning said. “It may be a lost child, a child that has been kidnapped, a wanted person, an advisory to avoid an area due to traffic issues or damage to a roadway, or one of many other emergency messages.”
Manning said the app will also be used to issue weather alerts. “The ability to send an audible alert to Beckham County citizens right on their phone is an important capability in this day and age when people are so reliant on their devices and have them on or near their person at all times,” he said.
In response to the alerts such as missing persons, or wanted persons believed to be at large, citizens may contact the Sheriff’s Office directly through the app by phone or by message. “The best thing about that capability,” Manning said, “is that messages to the app will be constantly monitored by our communications deputies, unlike our social media messages. This will save a lot of lag time, and it will improve response to on-going investigations.”
Sheriff Manning said he relied heavily on input and assistance from his communications captain in developing the app with the host company, aptly named The Sheriff’s App. “Captain Zachary Allen has been instrumental in the development of our platform for this,” he said. “She will be one of the key people in administering it day-to-day, and she has worked for months helping me make sure our app looks and feels professional and is easy for people to use.”
The alerts, Manning said, will be customizable for users, but the Sheriff’s Office plans to save the audible alerts for situations where that immediate notification is needed. Other types of alerts such as news and general information will be sent out as update icons that will show up silently on phone screens. “We don’t want to wear people out with non-emergency alerts,” Manning said. “So we’ll be judicious in our use of the audible alerts.”
The Beckham County Sheriff’s Office App will offer several other features not easily available on social media, such as an automatically updated jail log, which will include book-in photos, information on charges and bond when available, and other public information relating to those in custody. There will also be a tab for recently booked-in arrestees.
“We believe this feature will be used quite a bit, based on the number of calls we receive from the public regarding whether we have someone in custody,” Manning said. “There is also a tab that gives up-to-date information on how to put money on the books for those in custody, how to place video calls, how to place money on commissary books, what the rules are for mail at the facility, and things like that. We realize that many family members or friends of those in custody don’t often deal with these sorts of things, and we want to make that as easy as possible.”
The app will have a phone button for immediate calls to the Sheriff’s Office, and an area for submitting tips, either anonymously or with the submitter’s information, whichever is preferred. And it will soon have a dedicated area for submitting requests for extra patrol.
Other capabilities the app will offer to users include:
-A list of most wanted individuals
-A link to the sex offender registry
-Crime prevention tips
-Frequently asked questions and answers
-Updated Sheriff’s sales
-A “Join Our Team” link for those seeking employment
The Sheriff’s Office knows that one of the main keys to the successful use of the app will be getting people to install it on their phones and activate the push settings. “We invite people to install the app, and be sure to activate the push settings. We will only use the audible alerts when we need to, and we believe it will allow us to partner better with those in our community in urgent situations,” Manning said.
Sheriff Manning said he believes the app will be just another way to stay in contact with the public while remaining transparent and accountable to the people his office serves. “We believe this app facilitates the way most people like to interact now, whether it’s with government, businesses or each other. Our goal with this technology is to provide good, old-fashioned public service using the most up-to-date, relevant tools we can.”
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