In his budget vote speech in July, then-Acting Minister of Police, Mr Gwede Mantashe, named a number of critical enablers that will underpin the SAPS’ crime-fighting strategy. The adoption and enhancement of technology to improve detection, rapid response, and data analysis was third on the list, indicating how important technology is to our safety and security.
In August, Hytera Communications South Africa announced that it has partnered with the Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) and Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) to provide a tech upgrade aimed at improving communication across the city. The F.I.R.M. celebrates this upgrade an important step in the adoption and enhancement of technology that Minister Mantashe listed as critical in his speech.
Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest city, with one of the largest emergency services units in the whole of Africa. EMS is responsible for an area of 1,620km² and a population of 4.5 million people, responding to roughly 250,000 emergency calls a year for firefighting, emergency medical services and rescue programmes. JMPD’s 2 300 operational staff members are responsible for crime prevention, traffic policing, and ensuring the safety and security of citizens and visitors.
These public safety agencies used to rely solely on a third-party provincial terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) network for their communications. Lack of maintenance on this network led to frequent dead zones,compromising officer communication and public safety. A tech upgrade in the form of Hytera PTC680 multi-mode advanced radios, which integrate TETRA and LTE networks in a single device, aim to address the coverage blackspots and limited functionality in the existing system.
“This approach fits the trend in communication technology alongside more traditional radio technology so that officers can communicate in areas where there is no radio coverage. When an officer roams outside the area of coverage, the radio will automatically and seamlessly switch between networks without the user having to manually change anything,” Cedric Mark Rigney, senior spokesperson for Hytera South Africa, recently told IT-Online.
The TETRA network represented a migration from analogue to digital in 2012. The new multi-mode solution augments and improves what TETRA could provide, with a 3G or LTE network as a fallback. The hybrid approach allows police, fire and ambulance personnel to stay connected with their colleagues and the control room, while protecting the investment into narrowband.
LTE allows officers to stream video back to the police control room, enhancing situational awareness and improving decision-making. Paramedics benefit from this capability, too, as they can access expert advice from doctors and other medical professionals by streaming footage of a patient.
The system also allows for better co-ordination in situations where several emergency services are needed, such as a vehicle accident that requires JMPD, fire and medical emergency services on site. GPS-enableddevices allow a dispatcher to see the location of all services people, send the closest personnel to the incident and then monitor how far away help is. The dispatcher can track the first responder’s progress and then feed that information back to the person who reported the incident. This enables commanders and supervisors to manage their resources more efficiently and coordinate a response to any incident or emergency more quickly.
Access to this kind of data – how long it took to close an incident or how long it took for help arrive on scene – also improves future resource planning. The data can be used to identify where EMS and JMPD may befalling short and develop strategies to improve the level of service.
The South African Police Service has indicated its intent to invest R 670 million for the construction and upgrading of police stations. An additional R 20 million is earmarked for the procurement and conversion of vehicles to expand the availability of mobile Community Service Centres. It has announced its intention to enhance operational effectiveness, investigative capacity, and public safety through further strategic deployment of technology, making the communication tech upgrade one of many planned investments.
Further investment is earmarked for the deployment of drones, body-worn cameras, and vehicle dashboard cameras. The SAPS plans to procure and deploy 450 body-worn cameras and 200 vehicle dashboard cameras during the 2025/26 financial year, as well as 17 surveillance drones to provide enhanced aerial surveillance capabilities. These drones will be used during large events and rescue operations, offering real-time situational awareness, live video feeds, and the ability to document crime scenes, marches, and public gatherings.
Tech upgrades like these are critical to modernising police and emergency services in Johannesburg, and indeed around the country.