Known as Honolulu 311, the new app uses GPS technology in order to better track a variety of maintenance issues. Users can attach video, pictures or an audio clip to their complaint in order to provide more detail as to the issue at hand.
“The Honolulu 311 system will help Honolulu become a lean, clean, smart city through the use of technology,” the mayor said during a press conference. “This is one of the goals this administration had envisioned to make city government more user-friendly.”
The new app is also expected to save the money. Currently, it costs about $6 for each phone call that comes into the city’s complaint hotline. Honolulu 311 is expected to bring down that cost to just pennies per complaint.
“So the more that we can get (complaints) in this way, the more money the city is going to save,” said Gordon Bruce, the city’s director of Information Technology.
“If every phone call that comes in comes from six dollars down to pennies, it’s going to have gigantic savings,” added Carlisle.
Since the app uses GPS, it’s expected to take much of the guess work out of responding to various types of complaints.
“Now they’re going to have a map that actually shows them within a hundred feet of where that particular thing is, in addition to the address,” said Bruce.
In 2011, the city logged at total of 13,949 complaints. Street light repair and maintenance was the most common (656), followed by bulky item service (653).
The new app allows for seven categories of complaints: derelict or abandoned vehicles, broken street lights, tree or plant maintenance, cracked / uplifted sidewalks, illegal dump sites, broken / vandalized signs and stored property violations.
“There are approximately three hundred different types of reports the city gets,” said Bruce, “so we’ve only got two-hundred-ninety-three more to go.”
The city may add more categories to Honolulu 311, for instance pot holes, after it tracks the initial success of the program.
The new app is available on iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. You can download a free copy by clicking here.
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