GLENDALE, Wis. — The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office is introducing a new alert system to help drivers make room for deputy squad vehicles when on the road.
It’s called the HAAS Alert System and it provides digital alerts to drivers on the road when an emergency vehicle is deployed on the road.
Chief Deputy Officer Brian Barkow with the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office says the new system has already been effective with alerting vehicles on the road through the Waze App.
“This alert system improves that typical 3.9 second reaction from drivers when they hear the sirens and see the flashing lights,” said Barkow. “This alert system increases that reaction time from 3 seconds to 30 seconds which studies have shown reduced hard braking incidents like say in construction zones by 80 percent. It also reduces rearing collisions by 90 percent as well.”
The cost to install the system in squad vehicles only cost around $100 dollars and the installation for the entire Sheriff’s Office fleet costs $8,000 dollars and doesn’t use tax-payers money.
“Look, our number one goal is to improve safety, especially for our deputies but also for the motoring public,” said Barkow. “We want to give those drivers and commuters more time to react when we have squads in the area or on scene of a crash or some other incident on the roadways.”
Last month, Deputies were able to alert over 84,000 drivers on the road. Since June when the HAAS system was introduce to the Sheriff’s office, 239,000 drivers were able to react and receive alerts from squad vehicles.
