APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Anyone can now get emergency alerts straight to their phone from the Appleton Police Department.
The YOU Get It First app allows Appleton Police to expand the reach and speed of their communication with residents. It was implemented after a review of how people were finding their information.
“Being able to disseminate that information quickly is definitely something that’s vital to us being successful,” Officer Meghan Cash tells WTAQ News, “What we saw was missing was the fact that something would happen and people would have to search through our Twitter or Facebook or other ways of communicating to figure out what was going on.”
For those that download the app – any incident that the public needs to know about immediately will show up on their phones.
“It’s not going to be all-inclusive to everything that’s happening, but enough to tell people things like a road is closed, this is what’s happening, it’s a crash. So people can continue to go about their day and know that they’re safe,” Cash says, “It’s going to be used for things as simple as road closures to things like active police incidents where there’s a large police presence, to missing children.”
But the updates are only sent to those who download the app and follow Appleton Police. If you don’t want the updates, don’t sign up. If you do want the updates, there are a few things to know about how the app operates.
“It’s a little bit different, it’s not a social media app or a way to communicate back and forth – but it is a way for us to be able to send out an alert quickly and efficiently in the time of a crisis,” Cash says, “There are other police departments as well – we’re aware of De Pere and possibly Winnebago County on the app. It’s a way for us to be able to have the people who want the information to receive it.”
YOU Get It First is available for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
