Clallam County looks to improve community contact with CodeRED altert system

The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office announced last week the launch of its new CodeRED community notification system to send important alerts and time-sensitive messages to staff members and residents.

Along with emergency and critical messages, the CodeRED notification system is also expected to enhance the county’s community engagement via the release of important — but non-emergency — information, ranging from road closures and trash collection schedule changes and snow plow schedules, as well as other city and county services.

“Upon evaluating our current notification system and other available options, we chose CodeRED for its innovative features, user-friendly platform, and wide spread adoption rates across the country,” Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict said in a press release.

“Their company-owned redundant data centers help ensure our data is safe and that messages are delivered quickly to thousands of individuals within minutes. We’re excited to expand our communication channels with residents to include text, phone, email and social media platforms, from anywhere, providing the information they need-to-know to make better informed decisions.”

Registration for this notification service is customized, allowing residents to choose which alerts they’d like to sign up for and their preferred manner of receipt.

Residents can select several different methods including land-line, cell phone, email, text message, TTY or a combination of these. Alerts can be specific to streets, neighborhoods or regions.

Residents and visitors alike can keep track of alerts in Clallam County with the CodeRED Mobile App, which notifies smartphone holders of real-time alerts in the area. Similar to the online registration, users choose which notifications they’d like to receive via the app.

Benefits of using CodeRED are not just for residents, sheriff’s office officials said, as staff members will also use the system to communicate emergency information with one another, helping ensure overall emergency response and daily operations are more efficient.

Authorized city and county personnel will have access to the CodeRED Launcher — an application that allows authorized public safety officials to create and send messages on the go from any smartphone or tablet within seconds without requiring a computer.

“The mobile technology for CodeRED is extremely advanced, providing us enhanced flexibility to issue general and/or emergency messages from any location,” Benedict said. “We can launch alerts from anywhere at any time, and residents impacted by weather and other time-sensitive events will receive them directly to their smartphones. This all happens within seconds, which can make a huge difference in saving lives.”

Sheriff’s office officials encourage residents to visit www.clallam.net/Sheriff/ to sign up for CodeRED to start receiving these alerts.

For more information about the CodeRED notification system or registration, call Administrative Coordinator Lorraine Shore at 360-417-2262.

For more about the sheriff’s office, see www.clallam.net/Sheriff, email to sheriff@co.clallam.wa.us or call 360-417-2262.