The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), in partnership with black empowerment IT company 2BiG Mobile Applications, has introduced an integrated information management system that allows officers to log and access information using cellphones.
The first phase was launched at the JMPD headquarters in Martindale today, after being piloted over the last year.
The system replaces the JMPD manual paper-based logging method to record information and its radio system to track down and access necessary information through the deployment of mobile devices in the field.
It allows Metro officers to track traffic offence and by-law violation information by accessing online information on their cellphones.
The department says that by entering either a car`s registration or a person`s ID number, the officer will immediately be able to see details such as speeding fines, whether vehicles are stolen or hijacked, owner`s records and receive recommended action from the department. Future releases will enable officers to access other critical crime prevention-related information.
Using their cellphones, officers will also be able to record their enforcement actions such as arrests carried out during duty. The system also provides JMPD management with more accurate statistics for future trend prediction and will later allow the department to monitor duty officers` locations and activities.
"The theme we picked up when starting the project was that we are changing the face of policing in SA, in a sense that we will be doing policing in a way that has never been done before. We will know exactly where each police officer is, which we cannot do today. We will also know exactly what they did and when. In SA there is no police department that has done that," says Derrick Masoek, JMPD director of operations and programmes.
Johannesburg`s chief of police, Chris Ngcobo, said at the launch of the system that the next eight weeks would see the final testing of additional functions such as the remote printing and issuing of summons and electronic payments using various pay points.
"When we started this project in August 2002, there are many of us who could have easily dismissed it as a dream and therefore an indication of ideas associated with a 17-month-old organisation. On this occasion we can therefore proudly declare that indeed we are changing the face of policing in SA," Ngcobo said.
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