"Citizens' Patrol" successfully tested in Pale and Zvornik, available to citizens from mid-June

15.06.2022.

The testing phase of the “Citizen Patrol” application has been successfully completed, and by mid-June 2022 this system will also be available to citizens. This unique application enables citizens to report municipal and other issues in their surroundings anytime and anywhere, via their mobile devices. The main mission is to achieve more timely and efficient communication between citizens and local authorities, with the aim of achieving the common good. The principle of using the application is based on citizens identifying a problem in their environment, taking up to three photos or recording a short video through the application, and submitting a report that is delivered directly to the competent institution, which then responds in an appropriate manner.

“Citizen Patrol” represents a modern and functional concept of civic activism adapted to the technologies of the 21st century. Reporting municipal and other issues that require remediation is the primary purpose of this application, including problems such as damage to public and green areas, faulty public lighting, defective traffic signage, illegal parking, waste (illegal dumps), clogged drains, damaged park equipment, damage to (local) roads, water supply and sewage issues, district heating/heating problems, and many others.

“By implementing projects like this, the City of Zvornik demonstrates its openness and readiness to tackle all issues faced by its citizens and to resolve them through joint efforts. In the development of the current City Strategy, we emphasized our intention to improve the quality of life of our citizens and to apply smart city principles in Zvornik. Citizen Patrol is just one step toward achieving the set goals and the digital transformation of public administration,” said Zoran Stevanović, Mayor of Zvornik.

The application is completely free to use and can be downloaded via the Play Store for Android devices and the App Store for iOS devices. When using the application, users do not leave personal data traces, and all problem reports are fully anonymous.

“By implementing this project, our system will be deployed in four cities/municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Banja Luka, Brčko District, Zvornik, and Pale. The system being launched in Pale and Zvornik has been upgraded compared to the first two cities, as we consolidated all experiences from Banja Luka and Brčko District and then redesigned the application based on feedback from citizens and public-sector employees in those two large local communities. As a result, Pale and Zvornik are receiving an improved version of the system that has gone through the so-called ‘teething problems.’ We believe this solution will contribute to a higher quality of life in Zvornik and Pale, encourage citizens to actively participate by submitting reports, and motivate public service employees to respond appropriately. An excellent feature is that citizens can view the status of their report and the city’s/municipality’s comments at any time, ensuring they are always informed about what is happening with their submission,” said Branko Vasiljević, co-owner of the company.

The application adapted for the City of Zvornik was donated by DVC Solutions through the project “Smart Cities – Toward the Digital Transformation of Cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” implemented through a development partnership with the companies Lanaco d.o.o. and DVC Solutions d.o.o., within a development program carried out by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in cooperation with the Bit Alliance.

Through this channel, we invite all citizens to actively follow announcements from the City of Zvornik and to install the application, which will enable them to easily report issues and contribute to improving the quality of life in their local community.