MT. VERNON – The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says rural county residents should be receiving a letter from Sheriff Bullard regarding the newly created Civilian Assistance Plan or CAP.
According to a sheriff’s office Facebook post, this is only a plan, and the sheriff does not have any information that would cause it to be activated, so there is no need for a sense of urgency or distress.
CAP was created as a major disaster plan in the event something so catastrophic occurs, local government resources would be quickly overwhelmed, rendered ineffective, and even travel to Mt. Vernon would be highly hazardous and difficult. This would leave mostly civilians to respond to the crisis, provide aid to those in need, and restore order with some form of centralized local government.
The Sheriff’s Office worked with Steve Lueker of the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency and Steve Warner, also of EMA and the Amateur Radio Club of Mt. Vernon (ARCOM), with the initial planning. Communications were sent to all local governing bodies in Jefferson County to solicit interest in furthering the plan. Once sufficient participants were acquired, training was offered. Future training will be offered. The sheriff thanks everyone who volunteered their time and facilities to assist with the formation of this plan.
As the letter states, the only thing people need to do at this time is file away the letter, in case the plan is ever activated, so they will have it as a reference. If you have posted a picture of the letter on social media, we would kindly ask you to remove it.
Sheriff’s Office employees are not the people to contact with questions about CAP, only the sheriff. Questions will not be answered on Facebook or other social media. The sheriff would be happy to answer your questions over the phone or in person at his office.
