March 27, 2003
By Bongani Majola
ON the occasion of its second anniversary on Friday, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) will unveil groundbreaking technology, designed to integrate all its previously fragmented database systems into one, which will also be accessible through a cell phone.
Known as the Telematric Enforcement Solution, this IT initiative is aimed at "modernising JMPD's current infrastructure to ensure that organisational and operational aspects of all current and future police initiatives are aligned with the City's 2030 vision", said Chief of Metro Police, Chris Ngcobo.
Whereas in the past police would only access information about outstanding traffic fines for one jurisdiction at a time, now the new system will need no more than 30 seconds to determine whether motorists have outstanding fines anywhere in the greater Johannesburg area.
Linking every JMPD officer 24 hours a day and seven days a week to a Joint Operations Centre, will be a specially adapted cell phone with capabilities that include driver identification, vehicle identification, property and trading licence identifications. Officers will also be able to have a quick reference to relevant by-laws, criminal procedure, the National Road Traffic Act and other essential pieces of legislation.
According to JMPD, the outgoing fragmented infrastructure, whose major thrust was on traffic control rather than metro policing, road accidents are recorded and stored in one programme, TRAFMAN, whereas other operations such as licensing employ another programme, NATIS.
"This Integrated Information Management System is envisaged to be the nerve centre of all forms of data collected by the JMPD in the course of its work. Of more than 25 business units within the department that will be electronically placing reports on a 24-hour basis, it is envisaged that individualised as well as integrated trends will be generated and made available for further analysis and dissemination," says Ngcobo.
Ngcobo says JMPD is awaiting approval from the South African Police Services for the new technology to incorporate firearm licences as part of its routine checking and validation.
The first few weeks of the new technology will be dedicated to warrant enforcement, according Metro spokesperson CC Mackay.
"This means," says Mackay, "that officers from the warrant enforcement unit will have the software at their disposal to make sure that no driver is on the road while they have a warrant of arrest for outstanding traffic violations."
With the introduction of the system, traffic offenders will for the first time be able to pay their fines at any police service centre in Johannesburg. Ngcobo hailed the Telematric Enforcement Solution "the greatest innovation by JMPD in its two year existence".
"We are changing the face of policing in Johannesburg," he offers.
