GET IT DONE APP SET TO EXPAND, BUT FACES SOME CHALLENGES

Backlog, disparities in response time frustrate leaders

San Diego’s popular smartphone tipster app Get It Done will soon add new kinds of complaints people can report, a version for Spanish speakers and a revamped setup designed to be more user-friendly and intuitive.

Meanwhile, city officials and community leaders are questioning why there are large backlogs of unresolved complaints from the app, and whether low-income areas where more people lack smartphones are getting less city attention.

Since San Diego launched Get It Done four years ago, it has streamlined the reporting of complaints from residents about potholes, graffiti, illegal dumping, abandoned vehicles and many other problems.

The reports are highly accurate because residents take pictures of the problems they see, and the satellite technology in their phones provides city officials the precise locations of the problems.

The number of complaints climbed from 144,000 in 2017 to 362,000 in 2019 — or to nearly 1,000 per day. The app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, and city officials estimate there are more than 12,500 active users each month.

Upcoming additions to the app will include a Spanish version and the opportunity to report bicycle-related issues and more types of problems in local parks, such as broken water fountains, malfunctioning sprinklers and dogs without leashes.

City off icials say a stormwater inspection portal will also be added, which will significantly reduce the paperwork involved in such inspections.

Perhaps more signif icantly, the app is being redesigned and revamped to