The City of Cambridge announced that it is joining the statewide Commonwealth Connect Program to receive non-emergency citizen requests and retiring its custom built iReport system. By partnering with more than 70 communities from across Massachusetts, Cambridge residents will now be able to report issues to any participating community via this easy-to-use, GPS enabled mobile app and online interface.
“The City is continuously striving to raise the level of service that we provide to our residents as well as those who visit Cambridge for work, school, or leisure,” said Cambridge City Manager Richard C. Rossi. “With Commonwealth Connect, departments will be better able to receive, address, and resolve issues reported by the public while also improving communications to the public regarding the status of their request.”
Commonwealth Connect, launched in 2012 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is powered by the SeeClickFix Platform used by cities all over the world. With this new platform, residents can report quality-of-life concerns -- ranging from graffiti and potholes to malfunctioning traffic signals and bike rack issues -- via the City of Cambridge’s website, mobile applications, Facebook App, and SeeClickFix.com. When submitting issues via mobile app, for example, residents can provide locational, descriptive, and photographic information as they see the issue in real time. Once the resident submits an issue, the City of Cambridge, and anyone ‘watching’ the area will receive an alert. City staff will acknowledge the service request, route it to the proper department, and update the request—and residents following the issue—once it’s been resolved.
Commonwealth Connect allows residents to comment on, and vote to fix problems submitted by their neighbors. Citizens can even create their own “watch areas” to receive notifications about all issues reported in their community, enabling them to follow the progress of all service requests---not just the ones they report.
“We hope this change will make our services even more responsive to the public’s concerns by helping us more efficiently collect, assign, and resolve requests,” said Owen O'Riordan, Commissioner of Public Works. “Additionally, citizens will be able to more easily track progress on their service requests,”
Non-emergency reports can be submitted and tracked by the public on the City of Cambridge website at www.cambridgema.gov/CommonwealthConnect. Residents can also download the mobile applications for iPhone at http://camb.ma/itunescambridge and for Android devices at http://camb.ma/googleplaycambridge.