Feature
Reporting a problem is now just an app away 7.5.11
INDIANAPOLIS STAR
Want to report a pothole or let the city know it missed a trash pickup?
There's an app for that.
The city has launched an app named RequestIndy. Instead of calling or going online to contact the Mayor's Action Center, open the app, select the type of problem, type out the location and send it in. You can even send a photo.
The app is available now for iPhone or iPad users. A Droid version is in the works.
Indianapolis joins a growing list of cities with similar apps. Nationwide, people in places such as Boston and Pittsburgh have been snapping pictures of potholes with their phones.
Locally, Fishers has a similar app -- and more than 4,600 people have downloaded it since it was launched in February 2010.
Officials from ParkIndy, the city's 50-year parking meter lease with three private vendors, also are developing a smartphone app to allow motorists to feed parking meters remotely. ParkIndy will run that app privately.
To develop its app, Indianapolis paid nearly $50,000 to Dayton, Ohio-based Woolpert.
Chris Cotterill, the mayor's chief of staff, said it was time the city joined the 21st century.
"This is cool," he said. "This is fun. But it's really about customer service."
How times have changed.
In 2007, the only way to report a problem in Indianapolis through the Mayor's Action Center was to call.
The wait back then was about two minutes, or roughly one minute and 40 seconds longer than folks were willing to linger on the phone, city officials say.
Now, they say, calls are answered in about six seconds -- with the goal of keeping it under 20 seconds. Although officials say a renewed dedication to the action center has helped reduce the wait, an online service launched last year also has helped.
About 30 percent of all complaints are now filed online.
I’m honored to serve as Mayor of our great city. Every day I work to represent all the citizens of Marion County . . .