Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office offers new daily check-in service

LOWNDES COUNTY< Miss. (WCBI) – A new service offered by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office aims to give families of senior citizens and others living alone a little extra peace of mind.

ConfirmOK went live this week. It’s an automated check-in service that calls people once a day to make sure they are okay.

Individuals or their loved ones can sign up for the service through the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office’s smartphone app, or website and choose a day or days and time to call, and enter a list of contacts to call in case the person doesn’t respond.

Sheriff Eddie Hawkins explains the process:

“On that time, that day, we call and check. They answer the phone; they hear the message, and all they have to do is press one, and they’re done. That’s it. We know that they’re okay. They’ve answered the phone. Now we can go on to the next day. If we don’t hear from that person, then it goes to the contact list, and it goes and sends emails and text messages to everybody that’s on that contact list saying, ‘Miss Jones missed her check-in today. Can Somebody go check on her?’ And that gives them an opportunity to go check on her to make sure she’s okay. If we don’t hear from anybody on that list then that automated system calls 911 and says, ‘Miss Jones at 123 MAin Street didn’t check in today, and we need to send a deputy by there to check on her.’ And that happens within about a 30-minute window. So, if we don’t hear from somebody in about a s0-minute window, then a deputy is enroute to make sure Miss Jones is okay.”

Hawkins says the service is only open to Lowndes County residents, but he has had other departments inquiring about how to set it up in their areas.