By Jonathan Bym
Insider Staff Writer
A one-stop shop for information regarding the Moore County Sheriff’s Office is now available at the tap on a phone screen.
The new smartphone app has completed a testing phase. Public communication from the Sheriff’s Office has mainly been done through social media, but the app cuts out the chance that communication could be hindered.
“In times past using social media, there have been occasions where our accounts have been frozen, locked, blacked out or that sort of thing. Recently at a conference last year, we came across this company that creates custom apps that you can run everything through,” Chief Deputy Andy Conway said. “Whether it’s news releases, social media, push notifications or any type of feed that you want to interact with the community, all of that goes through this.”
The smartphone app, designed by OCV LLC, will be the main source of communication going forward for the Sheriff’s Office. The option for immediate push notifications to those who download the app is available.
Conway envisions the app in the future being used to push out suspect information or vehicle-of-interest descriptions in the event of an incident needing help from the public.
“There’s been a lot of success in that realm as far as feedback from the public helping us solve these crimes,” Conway said. “It’s multifaceted, and we’re expecting to use this as our primary source of communication to interact with all of our community.”
Links from the app forward to webpages for forms and other resources the Sheriff’s Office’s website provides, such as conceal carry permitting, animal services, fraud alerts, submitting a crime tip, among others.
“A big part of this too was opening the door for the community to communicate with us. On the app, they can get tips to us, they can contact us by phone or email, they can apply for jobs. Anything they need to do to communicate with us, we have that open to the public on there,” Major Eric Galloway said.
Inmate information, like intake at the Moore County Detention Center, as well as inmate communication and commissionsary information is available on the app as well.
“There’s even portions on there that have all the information for bail bondsmen to go on there, which is going to limit them having to interact with our booking teams in the detention center. They won’t have to call booking to request any information. They can go on this app, and get all the information to bond any inmate out,” Conway said.
The detention center commissary contractor, Oasis Commissary, is using a portion of the commission of sales to pay for the app, Conway said.
“They have basically worked with us, and they agreed to pay for the full price and the cost of the app up front,” Conway said. “Once the full cost of the app is paid for, through a portion of the commission — however long it may take — that commission will go back to its standard rate that the original contract that was agreed upon by the commissary company.”
Before the U.S. Open was the target date for the app’s completion, and information on the championship and safety tips is front and center on the app’s homescreen.
Sheriff’s Office officials say that the app has a wealth of capabilities that they are still learning, and, much like most technology, will be updated and improved from the base model it is currently working on.
The app can be downloaded after searching Moore County Sheriff’s Office NC on the app store.
Contact Jonathan Bym at (910) 693-2470 or jonathan@thepilot.com.
