In an initiative aimed at arming KwaZulu-Natal community members with proactive anti-crime information,
East Coast Radio has pioneered an online Neighbourhood Watch feature.
The newly launched internet-based virtual notice board, Neighbourhood Watch, is an offshoot from
East Coast Radio's popular Crimewatch on-air feature and blog. Recognised as a crime fighter for many years, incidents reported by
East Coast Radio were recently raised in Parliament.
It's hoped that Neighbourhood Watch will enable
East Coast Radio to take its crime fighting initiatives to new levels. After registering on the site, web users are able to report and track crime and suspicious behaviour in their areas. There is no cost involved in the registration.
Apart from assisting the public, Neighbourhood Watch will also act as a resource for Community Policing Forums, private security companies, the South African Police Services or anyone else who wishes to access real-time information about crime in communities throughout KZN.
What makes the initiative unique is that listeners are able to specifically pinpoint the crimes that they are alerting others about. As Neighbourhood Watch is broken down into areas, listeners have access not only to general information but to specific information which is relevant to where they live or work.
In addition to posts per area, there are map views that show high-alert areas along with the latest alert in each of those areas. The Neighbourhood Watch component makes use of the latest Web 2.0 technology which allows the user to view different areas without reloading the entire page over and over again. This means that clicking on an area or category will dynamically update the page without the need to reload the entire site, saving users time and bandwidth.
Crimewatch airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 09:20. The Crimewatch blog can be accessed at
www.ecr.co.za.