The Tshwane Metro Police, together with the City of Tshwane, recently launched Namola, a pilot smartphone app that helps the user send a direct alert to the nearest Metro Police responders. The first available responder is automatically directed to the user by a dashboard-mounted smartphone.
The pilot within Monument Park in the City has been launched to provide a real-world evaluation on how this technology can be used in the fight against crime in South Africa.
This solution is expected to free capacity in police control rooms and will help citizens to receive police assistance faster. It will also collect vast quantities of real-time data that can be used for preventative policing, and improved police oversight and accountability.
Why is it so important for initiatives like this to be spearheaded by the public sector?
1. Scale
The public sector with its size has the potential to scale an initiative like this much faster and much larger than the private sector ever could.
2. The good of all South Africans
Like it or not the private security sector is predominantly focused on wealthier neighbourhoods. For this solution to benefit all in South Africa, rich and poor, it needs to be done with the public sector.
The best results — biggest impact on crime and safety for all — will be achieved by aligning the public and private sectors.
3. A passion for the public
Those who seek work for the state do so to help the public. That is why it is called the public sector.
Yes, some of them do lose focus along the way and of course there are the ‘bad apples’. Bad news sells newspapers. That’s why this minority get so much airtime and exposure. Many of us (me included) also tend to unfairly paint people of specific organisations in the same brush.
To date my experiences with the Tshwane Metro Police and the City have been amazing. Despite what can be a difficult work environment and little public support most of the people that I have met there are motivated to do good.