ABU DHABI // Residents have been urged to report those who drive recklessly in the pre-iftar dash, with the free CityGuard mobile application.
They can report an incident by taking a photo, video or audio clip and use an interactive map to show where it happened.
The app automatically sends a report to the government contact centre, which assigns it to the appropriate department.
Brig Gen Hussein Al Harthi, Abu Dhabi Police director of traffic and patrols, in May asked residents to report offences such as stunt driving, overtaking on the hard shoulder and driving through red lights.
Drivers should provide the licence plate number and make of vehicle, location and time of the offence.
“We ran a four-month campaign from March until June and we’ve witnessed a phenomenal increase in the number of downloads,” said Rani Saddi, communications manager at the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (Adsic).
“Police ran a parallel campaign on traffic safety. They synchronised it with our campaign and tried to leverage the CityGuard application.”
The app was downloaded more than 26,000 times in the first four months of the year.
Adsic does not have available data on the number of traffic-related cases reported through the app.
“Unfortunately, the number of accidents rises during Ramadan by default,” Mr Saddi said. “Instead of going to the police or Saaed office to complain, one can take a picture, a video or audio recording and submit it.”
The CityGuard app was part of the Abu Dhabi Government’s plan to encourage the public to report problems including traffic offences, Brig Gen Al Harthi said in May.
“This allows speed of communication and makes better use of this electronic application to provide a better and safer traffic environment,” he said.
Mr Saddi called the app a bridge between the Government and the community, providing a quick response to various problems.
The CityGuard app is downloadable from app stores for Apple, Android and BlackBerry phones, and from abudhabi.ae by clicking on the CityGuard link on the home page.
“We are encouraging residents not just to simply report incidents, but to be also part of the decision-making process,” Mr Saddi said.
“There will be feedback. We will contact them and send them a photo of the incident after the case has been resolved successfully.”
rruiz@thenational.ae
