The Niagara County Sheriff’s office has announced that it has adopted a service that sends text messages to crime victims if the status of an inmate has changed, according to the Niagara Gazette.
“Crime victims need and want timely and accurate offender information to proactively ensure their personal safety and that of their families," Niagara County Sheriff James R. Voutour told the Gazette. "I applaud the addition of texting and predict crime victims will embrace this new technology."
The new text messaging option is an extension of the existing New York Sheriffs' Victim Information Notification Everyday (VINE) hotline, which allows crime victims to check the status of inmate, to see if they’ve been released, paroled or even escaped. Other situations can include transfer to another prison and changes in security status, such as from maximum to minimum security.
The messages will be available in both English and Spanish and covers inmates across the entire state of New York.
Cases where the release of an offender could threaten the safety of victims, such as domestic violence or sexual offences are where the timely notification offers its greatest advantage to victims.
Victims could already call or check online, but now they’ll be notified instantaneously if the status of an inmate changes and immediately take measures to protect themselves if they have to. They can subscribe to notifications using a toll-free number, the VINEMobile app or the Sheriff’s Mobile Patrol iOS and Android (News - Alert) apps in addition to the VINE website.
Nearly 2.8 million crime victims have searched the nationwide VINE database in 2014, and over 100,000 have signed up for text and email notifications already.
“I welcome this new feature as my office continues to seek ways to better serve the public safety needs of the citizens of Niagara County,” Voutour said.
Edited by Alisen Downey