LOWNDES COUNTY – “This is your Sheriff, Eddie Hawkins. Your health and safety is important to us here at the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. We are calling to confirm that you are OK. If you need emergency assistance, please call 911. If you’re OK, press 1.”

That recording is what registered residents will hear when LCSO begins making daily check-in calls Wednesday using a software called ConfirmOk. If residents don’t pick up, two more calls will be made. If they do not call back within 30 minutes of the third call, a deputy will be dispatched to check on them.

Up to eight people registered as contacts for the resident will be notified of missed check-ins. Registered contacts can also confirm the resident is safe before deputies are dispatched.

“I think it’s really a good idea, and it’s a quick, easy way to give people another sense of security,” Hawkins said. “A lot of elderly people live by themselves that are shut-ins, and they don’t have anyone to check on them. … We’ve had people that have fallen and been laying on the floor for several days, or we have found people that have died and nobody checked on them.”

ConfirmOk will be open for registration on Tuesday in the LCSO mobile app, Hawkins said.

LCSO tested the software by sending roughly 200 test calls to a dozen people who volunteered to receive them, said Joe Dillon, who is volunteering to help set up the system. The Dispatch has received nine test calls from the software as part of that effort.

To enroll, a resident will fill out a questionnaire with their address, phone number and how frequently they want to receive a call. Alongside that information a resident will need to provide information for at least on registered contact.

A third party can also enroll a resident, Dillon said.

Once LCSO receives this information, an employee will make a confirmation call before entering it in the software, Dillon said. If someone else has enrolled a resident in the program, that person can decline to be enrolled during that call.

Once registered, there will be a longer optional questionnaire that will allow for more personal information to be added, including a photo, vehicle information and up to seven additional care group members. That additional information can be used to assist dispatched deputies.

This is a free service for residents. ConfirmOk will charge LCSO a fee per resident enrolled.

“It’s not much,” Hawkins said. “It’s a minimal charge for us for the benefits that we get out of it. … We saw a need for our community, elderly folk who live by themselves. We just wanted to give their loved ones peace of mind that somebody is caring for them and checking on them.”

Hawkins has been meeting with local groups to explain the program and said people seem to be excited about it. Once the program is up and running, both Hawkins and Dillon hope to get more community support through local churches.

“The churches know who the folks are that need checking on,” Hawkins said. “So, once we get the system up and going, then we’ll be going around talking to churches and explaining it to them and getting them to help get people signed up that need the system.”

Hawkins is optimistic about Tuesday’s roll-out for the program.

“What I like about it is we can customize the message that we’re sending out,” Hawkins said. “And if a holiday is coming up or if we got colder weather coming, we can talk about that. Whatever we need to say on the message we can put out. So I think it’s kind of cool.”