The Background
Ray Nkonyeni Municipality is a newly established local municipality in the province of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. It is the fifth most populous municipality in KwaZulu Natal province. Ray Nkonyeni is located on the southeastern shore of South Africa facing the Indian Ocean. The municipality is a well-developed tourist destination offering a mix of attractions including beaches, a savannah populated by big game animals, and mountains.
The Challenge:
Digitizing Call Handling and Crime Reporting in Ray Nkonyeni Municipality in South Africa
The law enforcement agencies in Ray Nkonyeni Municipality largely rely on old-fashioned paper documents for the reporting and recording of crimes. Citizens wishing to report a crime either have to come to the municipal government office in person or call the office via telephone to report a crime. The office clerks then record the crime information on paper documents.
This method of crime recording makes it slow to locate documents and hard to trace sources of information. The municipal government, therefore, wanted to upgrade to a digital crime reporting system to increase accuracy and make it faster and easier to find documents.
In addition, the Municipality was struggling to dispatch firefighters, EMS and police in a timely and efficient way, because each agency was on a different communication platform. So, the aim was to replace paper incident reporting and dispatch with an automated dispatching and call-taking functionality.
The Solution
Hytera supplied and installed a Hytera Call-Taking and Handling System (CTHS). The system is designed to facilitate a quick and accurate response to emergency calls, create incident sheets, assign incidents and dispatch police forces, thereby significantly enhancing safety in the city. The CTHS works in conjunction with an Avaya IP Office 500 system using customized software developed by Hytera to meet Ray Nkonyeni’s specific needs.
The solution provides the customer with a completely paperless online crime reporting and handling system. It also provides a unified platform for the local citizens to report a crime, which makes it easy for the police to process and access crime reports. The new digital system guarantees efficient, safe, and convenient online crime reporting, crime information recording, historical cases tracking, and management.
The system supports timeline-based tracking and recording of the process, including incident status changes, actions performed, and voice calls. It also lets call handlers play voice recordings online. Supervisors can monitor call takers and interrupt outgoing calls. The system also provides call and incident statistics.
Hytera’s solution also supports multi-site deployment. The Avaya IPO500 platform is installed in the existing server room of the fire department, while the Hytera Call-Taking and Handling System is based in the municipal government office. This protects the customer's existing infrastructure investment and also provides customized solutions to integrate the client’s infrastructure into the new system.
The Benefits
Unified Digital Call Taking and Crime Reporting Platform
The Avaya IPO500/Hytera CTHS solution provides the customer a unified digital crime reporting system.
More Efficient Call Handling
The call-taking process is now streamlined and the incident management software can cope with multiple alarms coming in for firefighters, EMS, and police all on one platform. It also reduces dropped or missed calls, as the system can handle more incoming calls at the same time. The incident details are automatically populated into the digital strategy, eliminating the paper trail. The system can also automatically merge similar or the exact same calls.
Faster Dispatch
The system allows dispatchers to locate and ascertain within seconds which first responder unit is closest and best able to respond to an incident. Dispatching time has been cut from between 10-15 minutes to less than two minutes.
Faster Processing of Crime Cases
The digital system speeds up the case-handling process for faster and more efficient crime resolution.
Straightforward and Easy Access to Documents and Reports
The digital recording system makes it easier to track down relevant calls and crime reports, making the whole process much clearer.
Paperless System
The paperless office system saves resources and helps to protect the environment.
Reduced Costs
The new Hytera digital system is helping Ray Nkonyeni municipality save hundreds of thousands of rand annually.