The app rolled out at the end of last year and offers users a plethora of features all right at the public's fingertips.
Waynesville Assistant Police Chief Brandon Gilmore said the driving force behind getting the app released was providing transparency. It offers numerous useful features such as a sex offender search and inmate search.
"I'd be afraid to pick just one as a favorite," Gilmore said of the features. "I feel like this is an ever-evolving process. I don't know that we'll ever want to just leave it alone."
The sex offender search allows you to put in your address to get a map of sex offenders registered to addresses in your area. Once you click on an offender, you can see an image of the person, a description, their address and the crime that was committed.
The inmate search provides up-to-date information on those being held in the Haywood County Detention Center, including their mugshot, charges and bail status.
Community policing
The app also includes an area for citizens to provide tips.
"We've received a lot of tips through the app," Gilmore said. "Sometimes it's as small as speeding complaints we were previously unaware of. The tips are, obviously, always welcome. It helps us do our job better."
When leaving a tip, a citizen can either leave contact info for an officer to get in touch with them about it or they can remain anonymous.
Going along with tips, there is the option to leave commendation for officers, along with complaints.
"Being transparent to the community and being diligent with not only praising, but also correcting our officers gives us an opportunity to better ourselves and to police ourselves," Gilmore said.
There is also a push notification option, something common on most apps. Waynesville Police use it in a more useful way than some other apps do, however, sending notifications about things such as accidents and construction that residents should avoid.
The notifications also post to the department's social media accounts, making it a "one-stop-shop" for alerting the community, Gilmore said.
The app also features a tab to view the department's most wanted suspects at any given time, including a description of the person and the crimes they are accused of.
The public has also helped police identify suspects through the app. When images of suspects are captured on surveillance cameras, officers upload images to the app and call on the public to help identify them, asking "Do you know this person?"
Gilmore said the department will apply for a grant to allow them to add an internal side of the app to give town employees the opportunity to be able to see the resources available to them specifically.
Waynesville Police learned about the idea of an app at a police chiefs' conference in Cherokee last year. It took the department roughly four or five months to get the app put together through a third party and released.
"Police apps can be a powerful tool for fostering community engagement and building trust between law enforcement and the public," Waynesville Alderman Anthony Sutton said. "By providing easy access to information about crime and safety, as well as channels for reporting suspicious activity and communicating with local police, these apps can help create a more collaborative and responsive approach to policing that benefits everyone.
The app cost the department in the range of $13,000-15,000, which was funded by the Waynesville board of aldermen.
"I feel like it was money well spent," Gilmore said. "We're always looking with ways to better connect with the people who we serve and that we're here to work for. This is just another resource to do that."
The app is available to download free on both Google Play and the Apple Store.
© 2023 The Mountaineer (Waynesville, N.C.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
