WhatsApp messenger has become a powerful tool used by residents associations and Community Policing Forums to communicate with their communities
The registered instant messaging subscription service for smartphones allows one to send not just text messages but video, pictures and audio.
According Danielle Dooley who runs a few WhatsApp groups, last month the policing forum received a message on the crime watch WhatsApp group about a schoolboy who had not come home from school.
“The message posted by a member of the public who runs a WhatsApp group in the Jukskei Park area, stated that a friend’s child was expected home early afternoon and he had not arrived home. Then a message was received that one of the Douglasdale Neighbourhood Watch cars had spotted the boy on the bridge in Jukskei Park. Minutes later everyone assembled at the bridge where the boy was found,” explained Dooley.
“The power of social media is amazing. Never have I seen so many people springing to action in the community and I believe it is because of the ease of communication via WhatsApp,” added Sean Gouws a member of Sector 1 Neighbourhood Watch.
Dooley said it thanks to the power of WhatsApp that the boy was found within twenty minutes of the problem being reported.
Chairman of the Linden Neighbourhood Watch Fareed Hoosen said, “We’ve had WhatsApp group for nine months. We have every Linden police Sector manager on the group who either report or take notice of the reports residents make, then act on it immediately. It has made it easier for us to catch suspects.”
Hoosen added that most neighbourhood watch and residents associations try to communicate with each other through WhatsApp. “We may be based in Linden but we communicate with other groups in other suburbs, as a means to help each other,” stated Hoosen.
Resident who wish to join the residents association or crime watch WhatsApp groups must send their contact details to the relevant associations.
Details: Danielle Dooley danielledooley13@gmail.com; Fareed Hoosen 076 413 7184 or 072 434 3660.
