THE biggest problem civilians and members of communities face is quick and effective reporting and resolution of emergency situations.
To date, South Africa has no centralised national number to dial for all emergency types.
iER (Integrated Emergency Response) has launched a new app to combat this problem. It can be downloaded and operated from any smartphone for free. Once the app’s alert button has been activated, the app immediately notifies trained iER call centre staff, pinpoints the user’s exact GPS location and sends a distress signal to the user’s pre-determined support group of family or friends.
With the push of a single button an iER app user will:
• Receive a response call from a trained iER call centre agent within one minute
• Have the correct type of emergency response unit dispatched to his/her exact location
• Notify members within the personalised community network of the panic alert for additional support.
The iER app can be used within communities throughout South Africa. iER has formed relationships with reliable emergency responders nationwide (3 000 units and growing), and assessed their launch and dispatch criteria for emergency response assets. Once a user has downloaded the application, they fill out vital medical information and can add emergency contacts which may include groups for neighbours and community members.
“Community WhatsApp groups have become a new way for civilians to report criminal activity to one another but is limited to 256 users per group. With the iER app, members of neighbourhood sectors can set up their own cells with no limit to the number of users, including family members and domestic workers. Members who do not have a smartphone can still access iER by dialling 086 110 6080.
“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 Murray Hewlett, founder of iER.
Hewlett developed the iER app to provide civilians with a one-button solution when faced with an emergency and provide users with assurance that they will receive instant assistance. iER is South Africa’s first free private 911 emergency service. Panic alerts are answered by highly trained call centre agents with experience in emergency rescue and 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. SAPS cannot succeed without the communities’ help in reporting crime. Criminal activity is normally only reported to the police after an act of damage has been done. This is the main reason why we developed the ‘Criminal Activity’ Bar on the iER app, which enables users to report an incident while it is taking place, enabling the SAPS to respond before it’s too late. We can only claim back our neighbourhoods’ safety if we work together,” said Murray.
The iER application is free to download from the Apple App Store or Google Play for Android devices. Anyone in distress can use it.
For further information on South Africa’s first and only fully integrated national rapid response network, visit www.ier.co.za
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