Helping in the fight against crime

Be warned of crimes occurring in your area with this ingenious new app.

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After a year of product development, testing and upgrades, South African Craig Cox and his business partner have made their website and app available to the public. After registering on www.thecrimewall.co.za, you choose a point of interest (POI), usually your residence or business. A POI has a 2km radius and you are notified of any crimes reported in that zone.

Various categories – hijacking, armed robbery, burglary, con artist, fake police, and so forth – are listed. Users who do not have smartphones will have to purchase an SMS bundle at standard network rates in order to receive the SMS notifications.

Warn others of crime in the area
“Have you ever seen a crime in progress and wanted to warn people in that area?” asks Cox. The app allows you to do just this, in addition to receiving notifications on crime. The database is updated almost immediately and the information passed on to other users in the affected POI.

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Operational countrywide
Although you will only receive reports for your selected area/s, you can report crimes taking place anywhere in the country.
In addition, if you are going on holiday, for example, you can search crimes occurring at your destination. On top of all this, an SOS feature allows you to send an SMS to three nominated numbers as well as your GPS co-ordinates. In sum, The Crime Wall allows you to report crime, receive notifications of crimes in your selected areas and search a self-populating database of previous crimes in whatever area you choose – all in real time on your phone.

For farmers
I can hear farmers saying that 2km is fine for built-up cities, but what about large farms in remote areas? In response, Cox says that farmers can contact him through the website and a larger point of interest can be set up.

Pricing
The once-off cost for each POI is R100. Downloading the app is free. The system allows the user a limited free trial of one POI.