The South Africans using AI and WhatsApp to fight crime

Public safety tool Community Wolf plans to use artificial intelligence to inform law enforcement and security companies about how to allocate their resources more effectively.

Speaking to the SABC, Community Wolf co-founder Nick Mills explained that the app uses AI to process WhatsApp groups and informs law enforcement and security companies about relevant incidents.

“There are thousands of safety-orientated community WhatsApp groups around the country,” Mills said.

“We’ve exported many of these chats and run them through an AI model to produce insights that we can hand over to stakeholders, such as SAPS, private security groups, and community protection forums.”

Community Wolf also has a chatbot that South Africans can anonymously interact with in their home language by sending messages, voice notes, or images of suspicious incidents.

Mills said when Community Wolf’s database receives the tip-off, the user data is stripped from the information to ensure anonymity.

However, a mechanism to unlock this information using a key exists should the group become aware of individuals abusing the tool to divert resources.

Mills said the tool could be handy for community forums that rely on individuals to monitor WhatsApp groups to respond to potential criminals.

This is largely because those monitoring for suspicious activity may become overwhelmed by unrelated messages sent to the group.

“So what we are saying is doubled down on the communication layer by getting your communities to participate in the groups or via the single channel,” Mills said.

“Then, we will provide the various stakeholders, state and private, with the insight to better allocate their resources.”

In addition to its reporting functionality, Community Wolf is also planning to implement features that allow users to indicate how frequently they would like to check in with the app when going out.

They can then add a safety contact who will be contacted if they do not check in with the WhatsApp chatbot within the requested intervals, every 30 minutes, for instance.

The security tool’s user interface is solely WhatsApp-based, which the Community Wolf website said is because the messaging platform is used by over 30 million people in South Africa.

It is also completely free to use.

Community Wolf is currently available to WhatsApp users and has pre-access sign-up for private security groups.

South Africa’s smart policing plans

While giving his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, 6 February 2025, Ramaphosa said South Africa plans to adopt smart policing solutions to combat financial and violent crimes.

Ramaphosa said government has seen the value of technology in fighting crime, as demonstrated by other nations who have used technology in law enforcement and made significant progress.

“We are working on adopting surveillance, analytics, and smart policing solutions for modern law enforcement,” he said.

The President also acknowledged the value of artificial intelligence (AI) in fighting financial crime, as demonstrated by the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

“By utilising artificial intelligence in its fraud risk detection and verification work, SARS has prevented the leakage of over R95 billion in impermissible refunds,” he said.

“It has recovered over R20 billion in revenue and dismantled an illicit tobacco and gold scheme.”

Major metros in Gauteng have already adopted more modern solutions to help identify and fight crime through partnerships with private companies.

In February 2024, Vumacam revealed that it had partnered with the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) to assist law enforcement in the province by providing access to its camera network and crime-fighting technologies.

It gave the GPG immediate access to its network of over 6,000 Vumacam cameras in Gauteng and provided access to partner cameras across South Africa, of which it has more than 5,000.

Its partner camera networks ensure an alert is triggered when the cameras spot a vehicle in another province in South Africa.

The partnership builds on Vumacam’s existing agreements with the public sector, including the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, resulting in an average of more than 400 monthly interceptions.