MHPS hopes smartphone app will bolster community interaction
The Medicine Hat Police Service is hoping a smartphone app will help up its interaction with the community.
The app has been in the works for a while now, and Insp. Brent Secondiak says the MHPS is hoping to have it in the hands of Hatters by January.
“This is something we’re pretty excited about,” said Secondiak. “This is part of our strategic plan under our community engagement priority.
“We held a survey recently and one of the things we need to do better is communication, and there was a decline in the satisfaction with our website — and we saw this as a trend across the industry.”
Secondiak says the MHPS has been trying to use technology to interact with Hatters, but says it has been underwhelming so far.
“We launched online reporting last year and it has been underwhelming,” he said. “We’ve had about 160 online reports, which is a very small drop in the bucket for us.
“We’re looking at ways to increase that, and I don’t think people want to see something, go home to their computer and make a report — the mobile app will allow people to have access to all of our services with the touch of a button.”
Secondiak says police services in bigger cities like Edmonton and Calgary have smartphone apps, and says he thinks in a few years every police station will have one.
“This is definitely the way this is going,” he said. “Everyone has a cell phone and all of those phones have internet access and access to a camera.”
A big part of the app will have people submitting pictures of crime that may not be happening in real time.
“Say someone wakes up and there’s graffiti on their garage, they can use the app to submit pictures,” Secondiak said. “Sometimes we can’t send an officer right over to that person’s house, so they can take the pictures and start cleaning up the paint or eggs before it dries out completely.”