The City of Cape Town’s Public Emergency Communication Centre celebrates a milestone this week – 20 years of operation.
The centre first opened its telephone lines to the public at the turn of the century, making it the first emergency contact centre at metropolitan level.
Twenty years later, it has evolved on a number of fronts, including:
- a name change from the 107 Call Centre to the Public Emergency Communication Centre
- technological advancements to expedite emergency responses, both from City services but also external service providers like SAPS and the Emergency Medical Services (ambulance)
- staffing increases to meet the growing need for the service
During this time, the centre has received more than eight million calls for help, an average of just over 400 000 per annum.
Emergency communicators work in shifts to provide a 24/7 service in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa, with 80% calls answered within 20 seconds.
The staff receive specialised training, which includes customer service, conflict resolution, first aid, emotional intelligence; trauma management, leadership skills, teambuilding, counselling, diversity management, mentorship and leadership modules and ongoing computer related training.
The PECC stands out as one of the most essential services that the City offers its residents.
It’s important for local government to develop systems of support to the public, especially through the integration of IT systems, as is the case with the PECC, which is supported by the Emergency Policing Incident Control (EPIC) system, which we developed and for which we won an award.
This allows for seamless, integrated call taking by our emergency call takers, the digital handover to the dispatching control room, as well as the mobile enablement with the handheld and dashboard units used by the staff in the field to receive these emergency requests and respond to them.
This system also ensures accountability for how we work and what results we get.
I can say with full confidence that the PECC is a well-oiled machine that the public can trust and rest assured that there is a person at the other end of the call who takes care with the relaying of the information to the relevant response teams.
It’s really the only emergency number you need on your cellphone in Cape Town.
I take this opportunity to acknowledge the excellent work of the call centre team and to congratulate them on the first 20 years.
May the next 20 years see even more growth and greater achievements so that we can continue serving the growing population and the needs of the citizens we serve.