Local law enforcement encouraging residents to sign up for 'Citizen Alert'

MEDFORD, Ore.– Local law enforcement are encouraging residents to sign up for services like ‘Citizen Alert’.

‘Citizen Alert’ is perhaps best known for warning residents during wildfires, but it can be used for other emergency situations, like mass shootings.

Law enforcement said they train with the county office of emergency management regularly for those kinds of emergency situations.

MPD, which is Southern Oregon’s largest law enforcement agency, said they have a variety of other ways to communicate with residents, including social media.

Police said they can also put out alerts similar to the national emergency alert system test that happened earlier this month.

But Lieutenant Geoff Kirkpatrick said ‘Citizen Alert’ is the most common program they use.

Kirkpatrick said, “we can also use that particular program to do it by geographical area. So if only certain neighborhoods are affected or certain areas are affected, we can use that program and that methodology to push out information to select, targeted areas.”

Kirkpatrick said they form relationships with other law enforcement agencies to prepare for emergency situations.

He said MPD works on communicating with other law enforcement during major incidents as efficiently as possible.

Kirkpatrick encourages all Jackson County residents to sign up for ‘Citizen Alert’.

If you want to sign up, you can go to the Jackson County website.