Argentina. The Municipality of Tandil presented to its citizens the Centinela app, an immediate assistance application, which offers the population direct and real-time communication with the monitoring and control center, within the framework of improving citizen security.
Developing this application was possible thanks to the articulated work of Protecta Argentina, SoftGuard and the Municipality of Tandil, who focused on offering the community, prevention and citizen protection.
Launch of the App
The official launch of Centinela was held at the Municipal Museum of Fine Arts. This space was headed by the mayor Miguel Lunghi, the secretary of citizen protection, Atilio Della Maggiora, and the director of gender and sexual diversity policies, Matilde Vide.
In addition, this official presentation of the application was also attended by the Chief of Cabinet, Oscar Teruggi, community officials, police authorities, representatives of the Judicial System, members of the Security Forum and members of different institutions.
During the presentation, Mayor Lunghi highlighted regarding Centinela that, "from the technological point of view, this time we present a very advanced computer platform, not only in its computer and communication system, but, especially, in its functionalities, which have been thought and developed according to the real needs of citizen security problems. "
In addition, he added that for years they have been promoting a comprehensive policy of citizen protection with a local perspective. "The national state basically dictates the criminal law; the provincial state organizes the judicial system and the security force; And the municipal State, in the last 20 years we could say, has had to gradually assume aspects of security policy, in response to citizen demand, and has done so complementing and integrating what is typical of the other levels of the State. "
In that sense, he explained that "in our case, the local policy of citizen protection is developed in three axes: prevention, assistance and protection. The axis of prevention is deployed in an integral way in different perspectives: prevention of social and illicit violence, prevention of disasters or natural or man-made catastrophes and prevention of accidents in a very important facet in the life of modern cities, which is the prevention of risk and accidents in the field of urban mobility.
Finally, he said, "today we launch Centinela, an instrument that will channel the necessary citizen collaboration to counteract violence and crime. Sentinel, through its multimedia, will be 'the eyes and ears of the neighbors', which will help us manage greater security from the facts that they themselves detect and warn us. It is citizen participation and at the same time citizen commitment, to continue building together a safer city every day".
In the same line of ideas, the head of the Secretariat of Citizen Protection, Atilio Della Maggiora, explained that "this is a new stage in the system of reports of citizen emergencies, linked to acts of insecurity, health situations, medical emergencies, or also, emergencies due to situations of danger, catastrophe, or disaster situations that generate the intervention of Firefighters ".
How Sentinel Works
According to Della Maggiora, the application will have two categories. The first offers the "I'm Here" function, which allows citizens with the press of a button to have contact with the monitoring center, this option is designed especially for older adults, children and tourists, for cases where they become disoriented and must be assisted.
The second function of this category is "My Group", where the user can associate trusted contacts, such as husband, wife, children or co-workers, among others, so that when activating an alert their circle of trust knows that there is a situation that must be addressed.
The other category is focused with functionalities for cases of gender violence, among the options of the app are: initial legal assistance and advice to victims; psychological and social assistance and evaluation, provided through an interdisciplinary team made up of professionals from various branches such as law, psychology and social work.
In conclusion, Centinela is a technological tool that has been developed tailored to the needs of the Municipality of Tandil, which seeks to promote citizen security, generating a safe, fast and efficient link.
The app is currently available for Android system on Google Play and also in the Apple Store, for devices with iOS system.
