Sheriff To Launch Mobile App
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Yalobusha County residents will soon have a new way to receive information from the Sheriff’s Department after the Board of Supervisors approved Sheriff Jermaine Gooch’s request to purchase a mobile communications platform for the department.
Gooch said the smartphone application will allow the Sheriff’s Department to post arrests, news and other information directly to the public and is expected to be online in August or early September.
“It’ll be posting what is going on, arrests and all that stuff,” Gooch told supervisors.
The application will be provided by OCV LLC, an Auburn, Alabama-based company that specializes in mobile applications for sheriff’s offices, police departments and local governments. According to the company, its public safety platforms are used by more than 800 agencies in over 40 states and provide a central location for residents to receive news, emergency alerts and other information from local law enforcement.
The app includes multiple function including inmate information, anonymous crime tips, sex offender searches, contact information, social media links, maps and push notifications sent directly to users’ smartphones.
Rather than using county tax dollars, Gooch said the service will be funded through the jail’s inmate canteen fund.
“It’ll be coming out of the inmate canteen funds,” he said.
District 3 Supervisor Kenny Harmon asked whether arrangements for the service had already been made.
“I talked to the guy about two weeks ago,” Gooch said. “I have to come to the board. I talked to Shannon (Board Attorney Shannon Crow). He said we can take it out of the canteen fund.”
Gooch estimated the canteen fund currently contains between $11,000 and $12,000 and said it continues to generate revenue through inmate commissary purchases.
“The more food they buy, the more money we’re going to get,” he said.
Board President Cayce Washington asked whether the fund would continue generating enough revenue to support the recurring expense, which Gooch estimated at approximately $6,000 annually after the first year.
“You think you will generate enough in your canteen fund to support it?” Washington asked.
“Yes,” Gooch replied.
Washington described the application as “basically a tool for the public to use to see what is going on at the jail.”
Before the vote, Board Attorney Shannon Crow advised that state auditors would likely review the use of inmate canteen funds to ensure the expenditure complies with state law requiring the money to be used for the benefit of inmates.
“I would document, ‘Here’s how we’re using this for the benefit of the inmates,’” Crow said, suggesting the sheriff document services such as video visitation and video conferencing.
Gooch said the jail already uses video conferencing and similar technology that benefits inmates and their families.
The board unanimously approved the request.
Also Monday, supervisors approved Gooch’s request to send Chief Deputy Thomas West and Deputy Taylor Byford to the Mississippi Association of Supervisors Insurance Trust Risk Management Conference Aug. 11-12 in Flowood. Registration is $325 per person, plus travel expenses.
Board President Washington described the conference as valuable training on jail operations, inmate management and reducing liability.
“That’s a really good resource to talk about how to manage the jail and keep you out of lawsuits — how to manage various inmates and how to manage arrests,” Washington said.
District 4 Supervisor Eddie Harris agreed.
“We need to stay on the cutting edge of that,” Harris said.
