Members of the public who wish to report safety issues in the Central City can now contact the Cape Town Central City Improvement District’s (CCID) Safety & Security department through WhatsApp.
Says Muneeb “Mo” Hendricks, manager of CCID Safety & Security: “We have now officially activated WhatsApp Web in our 24-hour control centre which means members of the public can contact us via WhatsApp using our emergency number 082 4157 127. This follows extensive testing which we conducted for two months to make sure our team has the capability to handle a large number of messages.
“At present, our trained control room staff team has a dedicated screen as well as high-speed internet and our members are able to respond quickly to messages sent to them. Upon receiving messages, they either ask questions to gain more clarity on the issue or immediately despatch a response team if the message contains all the elements required by the controller. We, therefore, urge our stakeholders to make use of this service by sending us WhatsApp messages which can include text, voice notes, pictures or instant videos to inform us if any issues are identified in the CBD.”
Mo further explains that the decision to use WhatsApp is in line with his department’s effort to use technology to its greatest advantage in a South African scenario where job creation is important while still embracing innovation.
“One needs to move with technology, and the use of WhatsApp will further complement the systems and public safety officers that we already have in place. When messages are sent via WhatsApp, we’ll be able to know exactly what the situation is. For example, if we receive a picture, we’ll be able to disseminate it to our team on the ground so we’re able to positively identify a suspect, as most descriptions received are very broad and can describe probably 20 people in any given area. We also wanted to make communicating with the CCID easier and much quicker. The use of pictures or videos will also help in eliminating the language barrier when trying to explain something.”
Members of the public who prefer to call the CCID (on 082 415 7127) to report safety issues instead of using WhatsApp can continue to do so as calls are still monitored within the CCID’s 24/7 control centre as usual.
Image by Ed Suter