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APD has an app for that A screen shot of the new Ashland Oregon Police & Fire mobile App, which allows public safety personnel and the community to communicate with each other. [Daily Tidings Photo Illustration/Denise Baratta] Sunday May 21, 2017 at 6:05 PM May 21, 2017 at 6:05 PM Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings @Joe_Zavala99 Ashland residents unsure what to do about that abandoned car that’s been sitting in front of their house for the past three days, or who to call about the graffiti they spotted, or even what to do with the wallet they found by the slide at Garfield Park, can now reach people who can get them answers faster than ever. The Ashland Police Department teamed up with Ashland Fire & Rescue to launch on May 11 a new mobile application titled “Ashland Oregon Police,” designed to connect the city’s emergency service providers with members of the community through their smartphones. The free app, available for IOS (Apple), Android and Windows devices, allows APD and Ashland Fire & Rescue to send customizable push alerts regarding critical events and safety concerns to those who have the app. The line of communication goes both ways, too, as users can use the app to notify the city about non-emergency issues such as lost and found items and abandoned vehicles. Users can also pass along photos and use a geo-tagging feature. “Right now we can do that through a news release, but that’s dependent on the media picking it up,” Ashland police Chief Tighe O’Meara said. “And we can do it through Facebook, but that’s dependent on people looking at their Facebook page and wandering over to the APD Facebook page. And we can do it through Everbridge (Notification), but Everbridge is a really big system that is a very good tool but it’s not the exact right tool for this. And this seems like a really good way for us to push emergency notifications out to people immediately so that they can be updated to critical incidents in real time.” O’Meara said he learned about the app while attending a chiefs conference in Bend a few weeks ago. A vendor for a company named LogicTreeIT Solutions which, according to its website, builds mobile apps for law enforcement, schools, youth groups and business and community organizations, was on hand to push this product. O’Meara was impressed with the application’s capabilities and talked to a few other chiefs who already use it. All “raved” about how effective it was, so O’Meara decided to subscribe. The subscription fee is usually $2,000 a year plus a $500 setup fee, O’Meara said, but since he signed up at the conference Ashland received a discount — it cost the city $1,860 for the first year and the setup fee was waived. “Everybody had really positive experience with this application,” O’Meara said. “It’s all the same basic application, but each agency can customize it the way that they want to. We just put our logo on it, our contact information, we customize the buttons any way we want to. So it’s all the same basic platform, but each department makes it uniquely theirs. Everybody that I talked to that’s used it just raved about it and said it’s a really good tool, especially in emergency situations.” Only days after its rollout, the app was already put to use when a user used Ashland Oregon Police to report that the Alice Peil walkway near the Plaza had been tagged with graffiti. The report, which included a photo, went straight to APD’s graffiti abatement officer. “The other really neat feature about this is if we push an emergency notification out through the app, it auto populates our Facebook page, which in turn auto populates our web page,” O’Meara added. “So this really casts a really wide net when we’re trying to get the word out on critical situations.” The app is straightforward and easy to navigate. Its home page features an Ashland Police and Fire logo, under which is a horizontal scroll bar with nine tabs: Call, Welcome, AFR, Inform us, Notifications, Traffic Alert, Bulletins, Gallery and Directions. O’Meara said updates such as notifications and traffic alerts will be handled by himself and his managerial staff when they decide an update is necessary. Hypothetically, he said, APD could send out a notification that a robbery has just occurred and drop a picture of the suspect in the gallery. The app has also been customized to send reports from the public to the correct agency depending on what they’re reporting. Clicking on the “Inform us” tab, for instance, opens up a submenu of options that includes “Code Compliance,” and if you click on that one your message will be emailed directly to Ashland’s code compliance officer. “Even though the PD are the ones that decided to go down this path, we also decided that there was a lot more that could be done here than just a police offering so we partnered with Ashland Fire & Rescue to make it a public safety offering,” O’Meara said. “And the platform’s robust enough that we’re even able to bring in several other city departments to really make it a way for the community to stay in touch with the city in general and get information to the various city departments.” O’Meara stressed, however, that Ashland Oregon Police is not a substitute for 911. “It’s to report that abandoned vehicle that’s been in front of your house for a week, or that problem with the parks equipment, or the pothole on your street that you want to get fixed,” he said. “Those longstanding problems that don’t need an immediate response. It’s a good way for citizens to get that information to the right city representative.” Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99.