New app seeks faster emergency response for South Africans

A Limpopo-based innovator has launched a digital application designed to improve emergency response times for South Africans.

The Crime Emergency App allows users to report incidents in real time, connect with authorities and reduce delays that often occur when people try to reach emergency services by phone.

Developer Mapula Mailula said the app was created to address gaps in the current emergency response system, including slow turnaround times, the risk of alerting perpetrators during a call and difficulties authorities face in locating callers.

“The crime emergency is trying to solve the turnaround time of request and arrival of authorities at the scenes,” Mailula said. “It’s also trying to close the gap of getting requesters or clients in more danger.”

She said the app also aims to solve the problem of authorities not knowing the exact location of an incident, especially when a caller is unable to explain where they are.

The app includes a panic button, a whistleblower function, a camera system linked to authorities and a live tracking dashboard. Mailula said emergency officials could receive a request within four minutes and monitor a user’s location in real time, including in cases where a victim is being moved.

“In four minutes, you would have tapped on your crime emergency application and they would have already seen your request on the dashboard,” she said. “In cases where you are in danger of hijackings or human trafficking and you are being moved, they will be seeing you on the routes where you’re going.”

The app is currently linked to several private emergency medical services and two private security companies, with a third integration expected within weeks. It is not yet formally connected to SAPS stations, but Mailula said she has been working with a brigadier in Polokwane to help users on a case-by-case basis while waiting for national approval.

Mailula said the app has already helped users receive assistance more quickly than they would have through a phone call alone.

“The assistance they got was actually more thorough than when they used a telephone call because the response was more efficient and faster,” she said.

To make the service accessible to people without smartphones or data, the app also offers a free USSD code. Mailula said she is also establishing Community Policing Forum youth groups in rural areas to assist residents who cannot access the app directly.

“When you enter a rural area and you have a problem and you don’t have access to a cellphone, you can just visit the nearest selected CPF that’s in the rural area, or you can use the USSD code which is free,” she said.

The app is currently available through links on Mailula’s Facebook, TikTok and Instagram pages while it awaits app store approval. It is already operating at a provincial level in Limpopo, with national SAPS integration planned in future.