Contacting the Sheriff? There's an App For That

Sheriff Tom Boyer announced that his office has launched a digital application (App) to better serve the county. The App, which is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, can be downloaded on any Android or IOS phone, by searching "Valley County MT Sheriff". The App features a variety of tools to communicate and obtain information from the Sheriff’s Office.

The current version of the App allows users to access weather information for the area, sex offender and predator mapping of the county, jail rosters and booking photos. Furthermore the application allows citizens in the county to communicate a tip to law enforcement anonymously, and contact the department for inquiries, provides the Sheriff to push direct notifications to the smart phone, which allows the office to present information about key issues facing the county such as the upcoming Keystone XL pipeline construction.

Boyer said the need for the App arose for a number of reasons. The first of which being that as a government agency all communication between them and the public needed to be archived. That includes social media communications and comments. Boyer said that process would have been costly and ongoing and the assessment by his office was that it was not worth the value added to maintain social media when an alternative was so readily available.

The key feature on the App that social media cannot replace is the ability to push notifications to App users. As Boyer explained social media posts are hit or miss. A post may be visible to a few right away, but not seen by others until days or weeks later. This timing of seeing information is unacceptable when law enforcement needs to get information out directly and quickly, especially in the case of finding a missing person, child or animal or in seeking a suspect or information on a crime.

“This App gives us the ability to push notify the public of immediate concerns,” said Boyer. “And the public can focus it so they receive notifications just for their locale.” That means that a resident in Nashua can set up the App so they only receive notifications relevant to their area and not relevant to Theony or Opheim and vice versa.

Another key feature allows the public to better communicate key information to the Sheriff’s Office. If a member of the public wants to file a tip, they can do so as a named witness or anonymously. They can even go so far as to allow the App to pull the latitude and longitude of the person’s location and they can submit photos through the App to be used by the office. So if the tipper reports vandalism in the county they can not only send it in but also can provide an exact location and send in pictures of the damage, all through the app.

“I hope people will feel engaged with the Sheriff’s Office,” said Boyer. “I hope it will encourage people to provide tips and I hope it will accomplish transparency.”

Boyer stressed the desire for his office to better communicate directly to the public and not through other apps, social media or traditional media, but directly to the citizens of the county.

“It’s a tool to communicate with the citizens of Valley County,”said Boyer, “But most of all it is about transparency. Transparency is the key issue here.”

Boyer also hopes the format will open up communication to a wider variety of people who find an App more convenient to use then phoning in information or flagging down a deputy. He also hopes it will assist in combatting misinformation on social media associated with law enforcement information online. One way is by eliminating comments on law enforcement posts on social media that are not always conducive to an investigation or to a public alert.

“I think it’s a format that is more efficient and works better than social media for law enforcement purposes,” explained Boyer before adding, “It’s a great tool and a great resource to keep people better connected to us and what we’re doing.”