The county and multiple agencies within it have partnered to launch a local version of a notification software, Hanson County Sheriff Brandon Wingert told The Daily Republic on Tuesday afternoon in the sheriff’s office.
“We dug around for a while, and we were actually able to find a company called AlertSense. They were able to do a couple webinars with us and kind of show us what they had,” Wingert said. “We looked at a couple other systems, too, but AlertSense seemed to really be something that we could work with financially and that also fit our needs.”
People in the county are able to subscribe to get AlertSense notifications by downloading the free app or texting their zip code to 38276. Preferences to have alerts delivered by text message, email or phone call can be specified.
Wingert said that the sheriff’s office, the county’s emergency management office and two of the local fire departments began looking into alert systems last fall, after a child went missing in rural Davison County and the county’s authorities sent out notifications via Nixle, a program similar in concept to AlertSense.
Another child was missing in Hanson County last year, and Wingert thought that having a notification system would ensure that people knew what they were looking for. He believes seven other counties in the state had begun using AlertSense before Hanson County did.
“It’s an easier way to alert people,” Wingert said. “... Facebook isn’t as big as what it used to be, and some people are starting to go away from it, so this is just another platform for the public for when there’s something going on or if we need them to avoid an area.”
The system allows those with access to post alerts almost instantly. Wingert said the longest he’s had to wait for an alert to be sent is three to five minutes.
AlertSense is based around zip codes, so people have the option to only see alerts that pertain to their specific area and not necessarily notifications affecting only those elsewhere in the county. In an emergency situation such as a natural disaster, the system can also be used to reverse-call the entire 911 database of an effective area.
The $3,000 annual cost of the program is covered by the sheriff’s office, the Hanson County Local Emergency Planning Committee, the Alexandria and Emery fire departments and the towns of Alexandra, Emery and Fulton.
Wingert said the cost was generally divided evenly amongst the entities participating, although Fulton paid a smaller share, as it’s a comparatively smaller town.
Between those agencies and the South Dakota State Highway Patrol, a total of 18 people are able to post alerts using the system.
“Since we spread the cost out to everybody, we wanted to make sure that everybody had access to it,” Wingert said.
Since the system went live on March 8, Wingert said it’s been running smoothly, and that as of Tuesday afternoon, 629 people were subscribed to the system and a total of six alerts had been sent out.
“It’ll be a great resource for us and the cities and the fire departments to be able to push out notifications to the community to let them know what’s going on when things are happening,” he said.
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