Talk of the Town - Whitley County

(Talk of the Town photo provided) Larwill resident Jeremy Jefferson, below, has created a way for Whitley County residents to listen to the emergency scanner anytime online -- without purchasing their own scanner.

By Jennifer Zartman Romano

There's no doubt the internet and social media made following the weather situation Tuesday and Wednesday a very interesting social experience. Unlike the Blizzard of '78, Whitley County residents had a variety of tools at their fingertips to keep track of the storm, respond and to know how friends and neighbors were coping as it happened.
Additionally, more than 200 Whitley County residents had yet another tool -- Whitley County's digital, online scanner -- Scan Whitley Online.
Via the website Scan Whitley Online website, located at www.scanwc.com, residents can listen in to the police, fire and other emergency radio traffic to hear what's happening around them.
The website was created by 24-year-old Jeremy Jefferson of Larwill. A 2005 graduate of Whitko High School and a 2009 graduate of ITT, Jefferson has been involved in web design, computer consulting for several Northeast Indiana businesses and offering computer help desk services for several years.
"I have done websites for Fort Wayne Irrigation, Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau, Fort Wayne Aquatics to name a few," said Jefferson, a 20-year resident of Larwill. "I recently finished a major project with the Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau in which I made and managed the online sign-up process for the 2010 Walk a Mile In her Shoes in Fort Wayne in which we had so many walkers that we set a Guinness World Record.  All the signups and online payments for that went through my system. I have done IT work for the YWCA, Boy Scouts of America, Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau and many more."
Jefferson's idea to create the Scan Whitley Online website was an opportunity to merge a personal interest with his web design skills.
"I bought a scanner and wanted to setup an archiving system for my personal use.  That way I could find out what is or was going on when I hear sirens or see something in Whitley County," Jefferson said. "I’ve always been interested in knowing what is going on, but never had a scanner until 2010 believe it or not."
Shortly after purchasing his scanner, Jefferson wondered if there would be a way to put the communication he was hearing in his home online for more people to hear.
"I decided I could use my skills in web application programming to make the archives and stream available to anyone.  I enjoy making websites and enjoy being able to offer a service other people find useful," he said. Indeed, his website has become very useful for hundreds of Whitley County residents.
Jefferson made the site public in April 2010. When he launched the site in August, he had a handful of registered users on the site. Within nine months, he reached 100 registered users. In the past three weeks, he's gotten another 100 users and thus far in February, he's had 67 new users register. He estimates that about 10 of his listeners are "heavy users" -- meaning they come back to the site every few days. Others pop online frequently to hear what's happening.
Tuesday's storm was a great example of how useful the internet scanner can be for residents wanting to know what was happening around them. "A lot of users only use the service when something exciting happens," he said.
"In fact, 56 different people connected to our stream Tuesday night when the storm started and we had up to 30 different users connected at one time," Jefferson stated.
Currently, Scan Whitley Online covers Whitley County's volunteer fire departments, EMS, Columbia City Police and the Whitley County Sheriff's Department.
Jefferson said his listeners have been very supportive of the website and appreciate the ability to know what's going on with regards to emergency situations in the community -- including several in law enforcement.
"I have one listener who frequents the site that works for the Sheriff’s Department.  He finds my archive system most useful," said Jefferson.
In addition to being able to listen to current communication on the scanner, registered users can go back into the archives and listen to what was happening 15 minutes ago or a few months ago.
Jefferson has invested more than $1000 of his own money to create the site, but he wants to keep it free to users as a public service for Whitley County.
When local law enforcement switched to digital communications recently, Jefferson knew the change would be costly to fellow scanner listeners with new scanners costing upwards of $500. "My service will allow them to continue to listen without taking a hit to their pocket book," Jefferson said.
Jefferson has his equipment set up in Larwill, but the site is located on a server in Chicago.
"The service is highly stable right now," Jefferson said. "All the networking equipment at Larwill is backed up for 90 minutes in the event of a power outage.  So if my power goes out during a storm, the scanner stays live for 90 minutes.  Some very valuable and interesting information comes over the scanner during bad storms, so I see this as a huge plus."
Jefferson worked at a feverish pace in January to work some bugs out of the site and new software while adding some new features too. Now, when users are listening to the site traffic, a digital reading shows which emergency entity is talking, further helping listeners understand what is happening.
In addition to maintaining the site, Jefferson also recently created a page for the site on Facebook to get the word out about what he's doing and hopefully grow his listener base.

To listen to Scan Whitley Online, register and become a user at www.scanwc.com