Mills County Sheriff's Office Communicating With Public Through Mobile Phone App

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) is among a growing number of law enforcement agencies across the country that have introduced their own mobile phone app as a tool to communicate with the public.

The MCSO app, which was launched nearly one year ago, is available to download on both Apple and Android phones free of charge.

“We had seen what other agencies had done with an app and it really opened up the communication between the sheriff’s office and the general public,” said Mills County Sheriff Greg Schultz.

“The apps are definitely becoming more common. Interest is increasing just because it’s another way to communicate with everybody.”

The Mills County Board Of Supervisors expended $15,500 from Mills County’s allotment from a national opioid settlement to get the app up and running in the spring of 2025. At their regular meeting last week, the supervisors approved using an additional $7,060.50 of opioid funds to pay for the annual maintenance fee contract for the app.

The national settlement came about from lawsuits filed against drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, alleging that aggressive marketing and distribution practices contributed significantly to the nation’s opioid epedemic. As part of the settlement, over $57 billion was awarded to states, local governments and some individual victims to address the opiod crisis.

The Mills County Sheriff’s app has many features, including weather alerts, a listing and photos of current inmates at the county jail, outstanding warrants, a listing and map of sex offenders living in the community, jail information, sheriff sales and links for gun permit application forms and submitting tips to the sheriff’s office.

“It also has a tab with a list of resources for chemical and drug addiction services, homeless services and other stuff like that to help people that are in need,” said Schultz.

The most popular features on the app, the sheriff said, are the jail inmate and warrant tabs.

“Those are probably the two that get hit the most,” he said. “Any time somebody is booked into jail, it will show up then on that tab page. It’s in chronological order from most recent from top of the page to bottom of the page. The ones that are on there right now are currently incarcerated.”

Alerts for weather and other news can be customized on the app, which Schultz said is still a work in progress.

“We haven’t used the app to its fullest extent for push notifications,” he said. “For instance, if we have to shut down a portion of the roadway due to a traffic accident investigation, we can jump into the app online and put in that push notification. Our hope is to use the app to the fullest extent. Hopefully, the citizens in Mills County will use it as well.”

The funds allocated for the sheriff’s app are just a fraction of the $267,203.65 in opioid settlement funds Mills County has received to date. Mills County Auditor Amber Farnan said after recent allocations of $7,062.50 for the sheriff’s app maintenance contract and $2,375.77 for supplies and equipment for the Glenwood Fire Department, the county’s settlement fund balance will stand at $197,701.54.

“We will continue to receive opioid funds for the foreseeable future. In fact, a new settlement is being processed at this time,” Farnan noted. “I don’t have the exact amount that we are set to receive and as of now, there is no schedule on when all the funds need to be expended.”