The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department introduced a new website this month to keep up with changing technology and improve its connection with county residents.

“Technology changes daily and we knew we had to keep up with it,” Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun said. “Different scams pop up almost every day and we want to keep our citizens informed in order to protect themselves.”

The website was officially launched April 4, replacing a site that was built in 2007. A key team member involved in the new technology was Laurie Robinson, the director of social media and technology manager for the sheriff’s office.

“We knew we weren’t meeting the needs of the public,” Robinson said. “There was a lot of data and a lot of decisions we had to make.”

Sheriff Billy Sollie said the site will help make the county safer.

“We feel the sex offender website map feature allows us to better protect county residents by keeping them informed,” Sollie said. 

It will also provide another way to give and receive information.

“It will also cut down on the number of phone calls by seeing a list of current inmates there,” Sollie said. “We are excited for another venue for the public to be informed and to inform us. Arrests reports are all computer generated, hopefully debunking the idea we are manipulating information or hiding something from the public. Our intent is for every county resident to visit the site and become familiar with how to locate sex offenders, how to submit a crime tip and where to find the latest news and updates from the sheriff’s office.”

The new website will not provide information on whether there is an arrest warrant pending for anyone. That information can be obtained by asking a deputy, Sollie stated.

The website features news releases, messages from sheriff, which he plans to update frequently, pages on the services of each division of the sheriff’s office and a link to submit crime tips via email.

Other features of the website include:

• Alert notifications: allows the public to sign up for notifications from the sheriff’s department via email or text, including sex offender notifications, news releases, messages from the sheriff and most wanted updates.

• Social media links: allows the public to follow the sheriff’s office on Facebook.

• Most wanted listings: allows the public to view photos and descriptions of wanted individuals.

• Sex offenders: allows the public to view photos and public information for sex offenders living in the county. The interactive map feature allows the public to view sex offender locations on the map, view offender photos and profile information about the offenses.

• Frequently Asked Questions: Provides answers to common questions. Citizens may also email and ask their own questions.

There, also, is a listing of every sheriff’s office employee with photos, positions and profiles, Calhoun said.

As of Wednesday, the website had 1,300 visitors and almost 7,000 hits, Robinson said.  

“We encourage people to explore and sign up,” Calhoun said. “We want public transparency and this is another step to make information available.”

The website was developed by MostWantedGovernmentWebsites.com through Brooks Jeffrey Marketing, Inc., of Mountain Home, Arkansas. The firm specializes in website plus app solutions for law enforcement and government offices.

For more information about the website visit www.LauderdaleSO.org or call 601-482-9806.