You‘ve heard it here first. An app in development, designed to be your emergency call when there is no other option. According to an SAPS report for 2012/13, the SAPS take 18 minutes and 45 seconds to respond to a crime taking place and less than 23 minutes to react to crimes already committed. To be in a situation of distress and have to wait that long, would feel like a life time. Welcome the Panic app.
Panic is a crowd sourced emergency service which will use an app to empower people to help each other, where the national services seem to fail. With a simple push of a button, help could be on its way. The Panic app is designed to connect you and your household or community to a group, once the button is pushed; the people in the group are notified.
By activating the panic button, your response unit is anyone linked to your emergency group. For example; if your family were to all have the app ready on their devices, and something were to happen, you would activate the panic button and your family will be notified with your location. It is then up to your family to react on your behalf, if you do not have the ability to. The app can be used across community groups or neighborhood watch, transforming a community into a response unit. The app will allow you to join bigger groups or smaller ones, international groups (when you travel) but also stay in groups to keep up to date with the people you care about.
With the statistics you‘ve heard at the beginning and living in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, this app seems to be an empowering tool. Being able to assist your family and friends ““ the community included ““ is a much needed relief in a violence prone country. The Panic app will endeavor to help shorten the waiting time for response to your problem, but not necessarily the response time of the qualified individuals. I feel this app will help us assist each other and therefore encourage community security and probably make you feel that bit secure. I do believe on the other hand that an app like this could create a sense of vigilantism. Stay tuned as this app is poised to be released on iOS and Android. If the app were used as it is intended to be, this will be able to provide us with much needed support; from literally right next door.
Website: www.panicsec.org
Download: www.panicsec.org/what
