During the holiday season crime tends to increase, our community can benefit from using WhatsApp for information and security reasons. Most of us know our neighbours well enough to greet when passing and as we all have busy lives this may be as much as we ever fit in.In Winterskloof we have an effective WhatsApp system whereby each road nominates a Leader to manage two groups one for Information and the other for Security. Then each Administrator in turn belongs to a Leaders Group so that info which is VIP to all can easily be passed along when necessary. Keeping communications accurate and eliminating unnecessary chatter.
In my road this system has shared feedback on service delivery and non-delivery, found pets, warned of intrusions, circulated photos of abandoned of suspiciously parked vehicles and brought neighbours together for braais.
Our Administrator is Christel Klein who says, “WhatsApp is a great tool to share important information quickly in the community.
Our experience shows that it works most efficiently when residents of one street or neighbouring streets communicate in a Group. The group Administrator for the suburb then shares this information in a separate group and that way connects all areas/streets to spread security/emergency information quickly.
Most important is to keep messages short and to the point and to strictly separate social group chat from security related information as WhatsApp communication can get out of hand easily when the focus is not clearly communicated.”
If your street does not have a WhatsApp champion maybe it’s time for you to give your neighbours an unexpected Christmas gift. Use this opportunity to put names to strange faces and you could discover some new friends too!
Pictured here: Christel Klein