NEW MONAGHAN ALERTS SERVICE GOES LIVE

A new community alert and information service has gone live across Co Monaghan following its official launch at the recent meeting of Co Monaghan Joint Policing Committee. The Monaghan Alerts service is an extension of an information provision by Monaghan Co Council. It incorporates a Garda and community messaging service to augment the existing text alert service on local authority related topics such as road closures and severe weather warnings.

The development represents the continuation of the community alert crime prevention and information system that has been operating in Co Monaghan for some time. The revamp was necessitated by the withdrawal of provider Komeer from the market in December 2022. It was stated at the JPC relaunch event that the extended Monaghan Alerts service now includes an option to join by downloading an app.

This means that the new scheme will operate in a very similar fashion to the previous one, with subscribers being able to choose to receive messages by text, email or app. The Gardaí can use the service to issue alerts to one or more local community area, or to the whole county. For the purpose of the service, Co Monaghan is split into local community areas, which are based on areas identifying themselves as a community, combined with the boundaries of active Community Alert groups. Each group has been given the ability to send messages out to their email and app subscribers – this costs the Council nothing. It is intended that communities will be able…