Madison Police Department to be the first in Alabama to use ConfirmOK

MADISON – The Madison Police Department will be the first in Alabama to use ConfirmOK, a program which connects daily check-ins with law enforcement.

“I’m hoping that this program will allow us to get people who have a stroke or a medical need, attention 24 hours later, instead of 72 to 96 hours,” said Madison Police Department Community Resource Officer Shane Kyker. “We’re getting them to help quicker, and that kind of stuff too. Also, the nature of our job, we do have what we call our UABS, unaccompanied deaths, they just die from natural causes. Maybe they’re sick, and if they live by themselves and have nobody to talk to, they’re in that house for sometimes days or weeks before anybody ever notices them.”

Kyker said through ConfirmOK, registered participants will get a call every day at the same time. When they are called, they will press the one and the pound button to confirm they are ok. If they miss the call they are called again two more times, each 15 minutes apart until the call is answered. If they miss the three initial calls, Kyker is notified. He will call the person one more time and if they do not answer, police will be dispatched to their residence for a wellness check.

Often people are left injured or deceased during wellness checks because Kyker said officers cannot perform a forced entry unless they can see someone struggling on the floor from a window or have another indication that someone is in danger. ConfirmOK solves this problem, through the program each participant is sent a lockbox with a house key. Dispatch will have the codes to give officers when they do wellness checks if someone does not respond after four calls, then they can use the code to receive the key and enter the home.

“It’ll also help us to notify their family, because if they don’t have any contact with their families, they may not know something happened; it’s kind of a twofold process,” he said.

Another dilemma Kyker said occurs is unnecessary welfare checks, when someone is not in danger but may have a cold and not want to answer the phone. ConfirmOK mitigates the amount of unnecessary welfare checks because the participant only has to click a button and others know they are alive and well.

“[Other police departments using ConfirmOK] talk about how it has helped limit the number of these welfare checks that were unnecessary, so to speak, because somebody was in the shower or somebody was sick with the flu [and they didn’t answer the phone]; they were okay but they just didn’t want to talk,” he said. “So, they said that that has also allowed to free up time for their patrol officers to handle the other stuff they need.”

Kyker said the City Council approved the Madison PoliceDepartment’s use of ConfirmOK at a recent meeting, and he is hoping to begin using it on Jan. 1. He said he will begin with 35 residents, but he plans to add more people as he is able to.

“When I pitched the idea to [one of the captains], he loved it,” he said. “His mother lives here, and he said, ‘I’ll tell you right now, as her son I would pay $82 [the yearly fee for using ConfirmOK].’ I’m hoping that this will go well and I’ll be able to have some statistics to pitch to our city, and be able to say, ‘We saved this many people who had a medical issue, and got them the medical attention they needed.’”

Thanks to a local company, Kyker said the Madison Police Department will be able to offer ConfirmOK to 35 residents for free for the first year, this will help the department establish the system and confirm that loved ones are ok.