PLAQUEMINE — The Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office is the first sheriff’s department in Louisiana to implement the PursuitAlert system technology. This technology is designed to notify drivers of active law enforcement pursuits, road hazards, and road closures in their immediate area.
The Caroline Grace Gill Foundation started about a year after best friends Maggie Dunn and Caroline Gill were both killed in a crash where an Addis Police officer assisting Baton Rouge Police in a pursuit t-boned the car they were in. The crash happened on New Year’s Eve day in 2022. The girls had a green light and the officer crossed a red light. The girls died at the scene.
In late 2024, the Brusly Police Department became the first agency in the state to implement the technology.
Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stassi said his office have implemented the technology into his office’s 40 patrol units. At a price between $10,000 and $11,000 per year for his office, Stassi said the alert system is well worth it.
“The cost is minimal for our agency to do this. I’m asking all the sheriffs, all the cities that can afford it to put this into the vehicles — this can save lives,” Stassi said.
He added that since the New Year’s Eve 2022 crash that killed two teenage girls in West Baton Rouge, his agency has worked to cancel more pursuits than it’s engaged in.
“We have to do everything we can to minimize the danger to our citizens who we are here to protect anyway,” Stassi said. “So this is just one step in what we can do to make sure that we’re doing everything we can.”
To the families of the girls, Stassi added, “I want to publicly say how sorry I am for y’all. Nothing we do will ever bring those two beautiful souls back, but if anything we can do to keep people understanding it and downloading this app, we can save some other lives and thank God.”
In December 2024, the Brusly Police Department and Caroline Grace Gill Foundation unveiled the first police unit in Louisiana equipped with the PursuitAlert system.
The system was donated to the Brusly Police by the Caroline Grace Gill Foundation after Caroline Gill’s family worked to get a pursuit alert system up and running in Brusly.
Caroline’s father, Jason Gill, started the nonprofit foundation to help educate about police pursuits and support law enforcement with the “3 Ts”: training, technology and tools. This alert system is one of the ways the foundation has helped the local communities.
How PursuitAlert works
The alert system uses telematics on the police vehicle that can pick up the movements of the car and automatically send out an alert that it is in a high-speed pursuit. The alert goes through the Cloud and then sends out the alert to nearby users of the PursuitAlert app and other entities.
The alert system will give drivers “real-time” information to make decisions that could affect their safety and well-being in the event of a police chase or other event. To receive alerts from the system, users can download the Digital Siren app from their phone’s app store.
The alert sends an audible voice message that a high-speed chase or other incident is happening nearby, allowing drivers the time to react and make decisions that could protect their safety.
Tim Morgan, CEO of PursuitAlert and Digital Siren, said first responders do their best to protect the public through training, supervision and hiring good individuals, but “the missing link is technology.”
Users of the WAZE app will be able to receive some alerts, as well. In addition, some year-models of Chrysler, Dodger and Jeep vehicles will be able to receive alerts. Digital Siren is in the process of talking with more automakers to get the technology implemented into new vehicles so that consumers won’t need to download an app to receive the alerts.
The technology will be in major trucking software by the end of the year so that large trucks can also receive alerts, Morgan said.
For more information about PursuitAlert and Digital Siren, visit here.
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