Pesky potholes and flickering street lamps could be getting fixed faster thanks to a new reporting system on Oʻahu.
The City and County of Honolulu launched a new mobile app and website called HNL 311, developed within the Department of Information Technology.
Residents can submit issues or service requests, and the system will send each report to the appropriate department.
Available request topics include abandoned vehicles, building code concerns, animals hit by vehicles, storm drains, manhole covers, and more.
Service requests can be made publicly or sent directly to the city privately, and users have the option to include pictures and specific map locations.
Residents can also choose whether or not they want to stay anonymous when submitting a tip.
If contact information is provided, the user will receive a confirmation number to track their report, which will allow them to see when the request is received, in progress, and completed.
About 26 hours after launching on Monday morning, the public-facing dashboard already showed 200 service requests.
Officials said the previous reporting system, OneView, was managed by a third-party organization, which made response times slower. DIT also noted the program cost roughly $300,000 a year to continue using.
DIT Director Brian McKee said the new system eliminates the need for an intermediary. Requests will be automatically processed and accessed by one of the 32 city departments.
“If you have a problem out there, you don’t have to know which department to call. It’s a very simple interface they’ve designed, and I’m very proud of the work that has been done here,” McKee said.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi said the new system is a step in the right direction to modernize the process while also keeping in touch with residents.
“This concept made great sense, but every concept is always predicated on how well you can execute it, and it really wasn't being executed to our satisfaction,” Blangiardi said.
“What can we take that we were already doing and improve it to make it better? How can we better improve the situation for people using the city services? How can we make it easier for them?”
The department said it plans to incorporate AI going forward to screen service requests and to help compile similar reports.
HNL 311 is available online or in the Android or Apple app stores for free.
