Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office praises new system to alert drivers of nearby emergency vehicles

MILWAUKEE COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) — The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office has a new way to alert drivers when they're nearby with lights and sirens on, and it could reduce crashes during emergencies, construction, even car chases.

As they transition into newer fleet, MCSO recently installed HAAS Safety Cloud in most of their squad cars.

It's a digital alert system that tells drivers if emergency vehicles are nearby.

"The transponder is sending out that signal when the squad has its lights turned on and activated," explained Chief Deputy Brian Barkow.

The alert notifications are built into some newer model cars, but anyone can get them through the Waze app.

A message pops up on the screen, it gives an auditory announcement, and it shows the squad's location on a map.

"Last month, our squads alerted over 84,000 drivers on the Milwaukee County freeway systems," Barkow said.

He has seen it work anywhere from 1/10 of a mile to more than half a mile from an emergency vehicle.

In general, it gives drivers more time to slow down and move over.

"For the average person driving in a vehicle, they get about a three-second reaction time when they see the lights and hear the sirens of a squad," Barkow explained. "This alert system increases that three seconds to 30 seconds."

Milwaukee County deputies began using the system in June, with no cost to taxpayers. It will be about $8,000 a year, pulled from asset forfeiture funds.

"It costs us $100 per year, per squad, to deploy this technology," Barkow said. "Currently, we have it on about 50 of our squads."

Studies from Purdue and the University of Minnesota show the alerts reduced certain hard-braking incidents by 80% and rear-end collisions by 90%.

For the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, that's the best outcome: better safety for deputies and the public.

"Whatever we can do to try to improve the chances, reduce that risk," Barkow said. "Especially rear-end collisions on the freeway, at those higher speeds, we're going to do everything that we can to minimize that."

There aren't other full departments in the Milwaukee area that have installed this system, but Barkow said some newer emergency vehicles, such as ambulances, are coming with it already built in.

"It's new around here, or newer in the U.S., but in Europe, they've been using this technology for years," he explained.

Barkow said 2018 or newer models of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles have the notifications built into their infotainment centers.