The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source:
Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:35 PM
New App Allows Florida Law Enforcement To Respond Quicker To Attacks
The Bay County Sheriff's Office along with Bay District Schools are teaming up on a new way to alert law enforcement of an armed school intruder.
"When we're dealing with a school shooting we're talking about seconds counting," Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said.
It's called the Hero 911 app for law enforcement. School staff would download a similar app called SchoolGuard.
"It's very similar to the Hero 911 app. The teacher would press the panic button and it would automatically call 911," Sheriff Ford explained.
The app alerts on and off-duty police officers and deputies of an emergency in their area.
"It gives you an alert and you acknowledge that you're responding," Ford said, "and then it brings up a map of where the teacher's located at the school."
The app breaks down jurisdictional boundaries between law enforcement agencies.
"If a Panama City Beach officer happened to be in Lynn Haven and there was an incident at Mosley High School and a teacher activated this, that officer may be the closest officer to respond," Ford said. "It also notifies hundreds of officers at one time."
The plan is to have law enforcement and school staff download the app within the next couple of weeks.
Users will have to be verified as law enforcement and school employees to download and use the app.