Full Notification

It’s been a very busy summer so far, and we should presume and plan for that trend to possibly continue. With wildfires, big structure fires, manhunts for armed criminals and other incidents, one of the incident management priorities of the sheriff’s office is to protect citizens. Real-time emergency messages are one of the ways we accomplish that objective. We just want everyone to be safe.

Please keep in mind that real-time messages will come from the Sheriff’s Office if the incident is handled by the Sheriff’s Office or if the Sheriff’s Office has been summoned by another jurisdiction to assist with incident messaging. If the Sheriff’s Office is not involved, then the agency having jurisdiction over the incident will be managing the public information flow and we will refer media and the public to that jurisdiction for information.

When emergencies happen, and are under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff’s Office, and which require notification of citizens, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office uses several methods to notify the public. We do this in order to keep a flow of official real-time information. We send out this information over our Nixle Mass Notification System, on our Sheriff’s Mobile Patrol smartphone app, and on Facebook and Twitter. See below for how you can get real-time official information from the Sheriff’s Office.

Most incidents will yield a single news release after the incident. However, during rapidly-evolving incidents, we will continue a flow of information on Facebook and Twitter. News media across the state follow our social media updates in order to send the info to their viewers. This helps make sure the information is official and consistent. This information is easily accessible for the news media and citizens.

One of the biggest requests we have for citizens is this: when we send out emergency messages, we ask people to avoid the area of the emergency. The biggest challenge we face today is spectators who come out to take pictures or videos or just gawk at the incident. Spectators cause traffic jams, interfere with emergency vehicles trying to get to the scene, and put themselves and others at risk. Please, stay away from emergency scenes and do not block roadways. View the incident from afar.

Also, be aware of this: when we send out the notice for emergency evacuations, law enforcement officers will go door-to-door in the affected area to notify residents at risk. The evacuation notices we send out over social media and through our electronic systems are in addition to the door-to-door notifications. This helps ensure the messages are transmitted as widely and as early as possible.

We appreciate the cooperation of citizens and we hope this answers some of the questions we have received recently. We just want everyone to be safe and correctly informed.

Thank you!

Get official information from GCSO:
• Facebook: facebook.com/GrantCoSheriff
• Twitter: @GrantCoSheriff
• Nixle: https://local.nixle.com/grant-county-sheriffs-office/
• Mobile Patrol App: Download at http://www.appriss.com/mobilepatrol.html