Want Access? There’s an App for That
Access Irvine is a smart phone application available for all Irvine residents.
Ever drive down a street and notice a problem? Perhaps your car hits a pot hole or a downed tree limb is in your way. Maybe you’ve thought, “I wonder if I should call someone about that.”
If you’re an Irvinite, you’re in luck. The city of Irvine has Access Irvine, a phone app that can take reports on virtually anything city-related and dispatch the right person for the job. But just how did this app come about? Well, it goes all the way back to good old 2012: that year London hosted the Olympics, COVID-19 was but a twinkle in some pangolin’s eye, and smart phones were getting even smarter.
“So myself and a number of other city colleagues from different departments were brainstorming,” recalls Melissa Haley, Deputy City Manager. “A city commissioner wanted to provide a way for teens to report things that were happening on their campuses without feeling like they were tattle telling. So we decided to use an app to help teens connect with campus resource officers anonymously. That way they didn’t feel like they were raising their hand to say, ‘That person did this.’ At the time we were engaging companies who were quoting us a million dollars to develop an app because it was such new technology. And we had a measly budget of ten thousand dollars. We ended up working with our IT department at the time to find a contractor. It ended up that there was about five or six city staff members that literally stood at a white board and drew out a scheme of how we thought the app should look.”
Although the main goal in creating the app was to provide a reporting feature for students, the city realized that it was adults who were ultimately using the app.
“We initially hoped that teens would use it but we found that more often than not it was the parents that were using it,” says Haley. “So we had to pivot and adjust from there. It evolved, as apps do, and around 2017 we transitioned to a new vendor and what we have now, which is Access Irvine. The app has a new look and features of all kinds. I think if we were to have a teen app now it would be different because so many more youths have phones than in 2012 when we initially launched this.”
One important transition in redesigning the app was a simple turn of phrase: how can we help?
Access Irvine allows residents to provide feedback, find information, and keep track of any reports submitted.
“We rebranded our ‘Report It’ feature to ‘How Can We Help?’ and doing that brought us in line with our overall mission,” says Haley. “We just want to be available for our residents, whatever their need might be. ‘How can we help?’ is the most important and most used feature. Folks are using that to let us know about anything that they’re seeing. Like if you see coyotes. Or if there is a broken sprinkler somewhere. Or say a tree is maybe impeding a right of way. Or any number of items that cause concern or somebody might just want to let us know. The app pins you to that location and we get to integrate that into our work order system. Staff are seeing these almost immediately. I see them. I have them come into my inbox and I can tell you we have a significant volume of reports coming in every day from that feature.”
Not only does the city staff see reports pouring, but they act on them. The vast majority of issues get resolved.
“It’s almost 100%,” Haley says. “Some of them are out of our control. Say, for example, a neighbor is taking a photo of a vehicle that’s been parked on the street for more than 72 hours. Sometimes that’s a private neighborhood within an HOA community and that’s not our right of way to go police. There are certain streets or allies that are not part of the public right of way. So we will just send a note to the HOA and say ‘Hey, FYI, this is what’s happened in your neighborhood.’”
Utilitzing Geographic Information System Mapping, or GIS, ensures that only issues within the city limits make it through the app.
“We’ve actually been able to, within our GIS technology, draw a boundary in Irvine,” says Haley. “So if somebody is say on the border of Tustin, and they think they’re in Irvine, they can’t actually report it. So that way we’re eliminating that cross over, if you will. There are a few occasions where we’ve gotten things and we will share those with that community.”
Although it is within city limits, the Great Park is separate from the main reporting features on the app. As a massive draw of visitors from all over the county, the Great Park deserves to have its own spot within the app structure.
“The Great Park, while it is an Irvine city park, it is a regional destination,” Haley explains. “Folks are coming to us from all over Southern California, and in non-COVID times, all over the state and other areas. For example, all of the tournaments we’re hosting at the sports complex, whether it’s baseball, soccer, lacrosse, anything, we have so many folks from outside this city coming to the Great Park. They may not understand that it’s a city of Irvine park. We wanted to call out to people that it’s a whole other unique regional destination that will eventually, when it is fully built out, be one of the most amazing parks in the nation. That’s why we really try to highlight it. Even though it’s just a city of Irvine park, there is so much activity taking place there that we found over the years it needs its own look and feel and ability to be called out so people understand what it is.”
Separating the Great Park from the rest of Irvine is just one of many ways the app has changed since its 2017 redesign. Haley expects it to continue to develop with time and need.
“We keep adding to it,” Haley says. “Before it was maybe four or five different topics, and now we’ve added a number of other things based on feedback from the community. For the residents to be able to provide feedback is important for us. We want them to know that we’re seeing it. I see when someone has submitted a coyote report, and that report is then going to our predator log with our Animal Services team for tracking. So we pin these reports and then in turn that Animal Services team is able to track its behavior, its certain areas. It’s all data mapping for us too. It’s important for us to understand.”
While the city wants to receive reports from Irvinites on Access Irvine, some events are best left to traditional modes of communication.
The navigation under “How Can We Help” includes many options.
“We have the crime report feature, but we never want people to report an in-progress crime,” says Haley. “You should always call 911. Always, in the event of an emergency or an in-progress crime. The app’s crime report feature is something more along the lines of low level crime, if you will. We want folks to know that we’re seeing these and they’re getting acted on right away. Our crime tip reports go immediately to dispatch in IPD [Irvine Police Department] so dispatch is seeing these emails and processing right away. I see that happen rather quickly.”
As Hayley considers the future of Access Irvine, she hopes that its user base will continue to expand.
“We have about 7,500 devices that have downloaded the app,” says Haley. “I would like to see more engagement. The majority of adults have smart phones. We’ve been trying to push ‘If you see something, say something’ on the app. It doesn’t have to be scary or crime related. A tree, or a sidewalk, or a pot hole. We have street lights on there even though we don’t manage those – that’s SCE [Southern California Edison] – but we put that on there so if folks see a street light we can direct them immediately to SCE.”
The app fulfills the city’s desire to allow residents to communicate problems effortlessly. It’s inspired by Irvine’s drive to provide the best possible city services.
“We really strive to provide unmatched customer service,” says Haley. “The Nordstrom of municipal customer service, if you will. We work really hard and we are really proud of our efforts, but we know there is always room to grow and change and hear feedback. The app serves as a venue to hear from folks so we want them to be able to feel like they can use the app and report any of the number of features. And if there’s something that’s not in there that they would like to report, like some type of functionality, we want to know.”
Ultimately, Access Irvine’s convenience is its greatest strength.
“We have the biggest hope that folks will continue using the app,” says Haley. “It’s such a useful resource if you’re on the go. If you’re out, or say it’s after hours, you can always report something to us or ask for something. And we’re seeing that.”
Having an issue in Irvine? Skip NextDoor and take your complaints straight to the city. Download Access Irvine on your smart phone’s app store. Questions? Contact