Sheriff's Office Reveals Digital Siren App

White County Sheriff’s Office has just unveiled their latest tool in keeping the county safe, and handily showed off how it works step by step. At February’s Rotary Club meeting, Captain Nate Theiss and Sheriff Steve Page showed off the new Digital Siren system. During the presentation, members of the club also got to install the app and make sure it was being used correctly.

The Digital Siren System is an application that lets law enforcement send messages out to drivers in a specific area, alerting them that they are close to an emergency vehicle or scene. Imagine driving down the road, then an alert goes out to help alert the driver of officers in a pursuit coming up behind them. The app is intended to help increase the safety of both the drivers on the road, alerting them so they can pull over to give room for law enforcement, and the officers themselves, reducing risk of a collision while on a chase. Newer cars can even link up to display that alert on the digital radio.

The different alerts can pop up for a handful of reasons, such as if a patrol vehicle with its sirens on is going fast enough, if the sirens are on for long enough, or if the Sheriff’s Office themselves use an option to alert people in an area. Anyone with the app within a two-mile radius will be alerted.

For example, if an emergency vehicle is coming up from behind a driver, the app will give a notification that says, “Emergency vehicle approaching.”

At the meeting, the Sheriff’s Office also helped members set up their notifications so they can assure they do not miss any alerts. The Sheriff’s Office is confident in the results the Digital Siren System will provide in officer and driver safety.

“Because that is the main goal of it,” said Captain Theiss. “Both for our officers when they’re on the road, and for everyone else driving that might not hear the siren until it’s right on them.”

The Sheriff’s Department thanked everyone in the Rotary Club that had contributed to the project through donations, while the Rotary Club was grateful for the showcase on how the department is continuing to keep the community safe.