The Wyandotte County Sheriff Office’s unveiled a new tool to help victims of violent crimes Wednesday.
The Victim Information Notification Everyday (VINE) is now available in Kansas. Wyandotte County is the first county in the state to use the system.
People can visit the Kansas VINE website or use the system’s mobile app to put in their name and the offender's name. They will then receive a notification of the offender’s location, status or if the offender leaves Wyandotte County.
“This is primarily geared for a person in a domestic situation to know that they have been released, someone who has been a victim of a rape, citizens that have been victimized in that nature,” said Lt. Kelli Bailiff, the Public Information Officer for the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office. “We feel this is very important for their safety.”
Plans to implement the system in the county has been in the works since 2012.
“We had to make sure our interface was 100 percent accurate,” said Major James Eickhoff with the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office.
The service is free of charge to the taxpayers, and there isn’t any extra work for sheriff's deputies.
"It's important that other jails in the state of Kansas jump on the train,” Lt. Bailiff said.
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