New app to provide centralised way of reporting all emergencies

A new app called the Intergrated Emergency Response (iER) will seek to overcome a huge challenge communities face, which is fast and effective reporting and resolving all emergencies.

Currently South Africa does not have a centralised number which can be called for all varieties of emergencies as with the United State’s 911 and the UK’s 999.

The iER app, which is free, is linked to a 24-hour call centre which will centralise all emergencies and dispatch emergency services as they are needed.

When the app is downloaded the user is required to fill out important medical information and emergency contacts.

The app is designed to ensure that anyone who presses the button will receive a response from an iER call centre staff member within a minute, ensure that the right emergency services are dispatched to the exact location as well as notify friends and family that the alert button was pushed.

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The iER has formed relationships with over 3 000 reliable emergency responders from around the country to ensure that the app can be used within communities throughout South Africa.

“Community WhatsApp groups have become a new way for civilians to report criminal activity to one another but are limited to 256 users per group. With the iER app, members of neighbourhood sectors can setup their own cells with no limit to the number of users, including family members and domestic workers,” said iER founder Murray Hewlett.

“The partnership between communities and the iER call centre provides intelligence to the police that they can quickly act on via the existing civilian crime reporting structures like the Civilians Crime Intelligence Networks (CCIN) and the associated Community Policing Forum (CPF) structure,” said Hewlett, who developed the iER app to provides South Africans with a quick solution when reporting emergencies. Some of the services dispatched by iER include emergency rescue, medical services, trauma counselling and crime prevention units.

“All good policing relies on information and unless communities give the police correct information to solve a crime, then crime cannot be solved with good policing alone. It is time for communities to take responsibility for their neighbourhoods’ safety by reporting crimes.” said Murray.

The iER application is free to download from the Apple App Store or Google Play for Android devices and anyone in distress can use it. Members who do not have a smartphone can still access iER by dialling 086 110 6080.

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