Cape Town's new technology-based public safety programme could be an EPIC first The City of Cape Town is well on its way to becoming the safest in the country. When Cape Town's EPIC (Emergency Policing and Incident Command) programme goes live, it will be the first of its kind in South Africa, providing an integrated public safety initiative that facilitates co-ordinated multi-disciplinary preparation, mitigation, response, and successful timeous resolution of all public safety incidents in the City. Incorporating six primary public safety and security service providers across disaster management, fire and rescue, as well as policing, onto one single integrated technology platform, this programme will revolutionise and dramatically improve the delivery of services in Cape Town's public safety environment, according to Stavrakis. Thanks to EPIC, an emergency responder in a centralised call centre can answer emergency calls from citizens dialling 107 from a landline or (021) 480 7700 from a cellphone. In addition, the City's various safety and security departments and agencies can also log incidents directly on the EPIC system from their automated systems such as CCTVs. The call taker assesses the incident based on type, priority level and location, and information is relayed electronically within seconds via a SAP-enabled computer terminal to one or more of the five emergency command centres. The Command Centre then dispatches field officers via a customised mobile app to a mobile phone device that is installed in City safety and security vehicles. Once field officers have dealt with the incident, the status and an incident update are logged on site via the mobile device. This includes uploading photo and video information, updating the system in the command centres. Here, all incident details are recorded in the EPIC Database for further analysis. See http://ift.tt/2dg463R
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