For investigating officers
You cannot knock on every gate. Ubonile asks a whole area at once, keeps the people who answer hidden, and gives you what comes back with a record of how it was handled.
What it does for you
Ask an area at once
Create a request yourself. It is marked Police-verified and gets priority review. Nearby camera owners are asked in private, and followers and community groups can share it.Evidence on a timeline
Files are placed by the time they were recorded, around the time of the incident. You watch them in a secure viewer with a visible watermark, and every view is logged.Blind questions
Ask a contributor a question without knowing who they are. Mark what is useful. You can ask for an identity release, which the contributor must accept.Canvass counts
See how many cameras were asked, how many checked and how many replied, with the footage clock, so you know how much is still likely to exist.An evidence pack
The originals exactly as received, a list of every file, and a custody report you can attach to your docket.Verified area alerts
Propose a safety alert for an area. A second person at Ubonile approves it before anyone sees it.
How we verify you, and why we ask what we ask
Anyone can claim to be a detective, so a name, a case number and an email address give no access on their own. We check you ourselves.
- 1
We find your station
We look it up in the SAPS directory. We use the contact details we found there and no others, so that nobody can send us a number of their own. - 2
We phone the station
We call the number published in the directory and ask whether you are the investigating officer on the case. We never use a number given to us by you or by the person who asked. - 3
You prove a police mailbox
You show that you control a saps.gov.za email address. If you do not have one, your station commander confirms instead, and we flag the case. - 4
You confirm the case
You set a password and an authenticator, give your force number, and confirm you are the investigator on this case. Your sessions end after 30 idle minutes. - 5
A second person approves
A different member of staff from the one who ran the checks gives the final yes. The system refuses the same person twice. - 6
Access is per case
It lasts 90 days and can be renewed. We verify you again every 12 months, or when you change station. If something goes wrong, suspension is immediate.
What the application asks for
- Station
- To find the number we will phone.
- Name and rank
- So the station can tell us whether it knows you.
- Force number
- So it can be matched to the station's own records when we call. It is stored encrypted.
- Work email
- To send your invitation and to prove the mailbox.
- Phone, if you want to give one
- To reach you. We do not use it to verify you.
The evidence pack and the custody report
The evidence pack
A download for one case. It holds the original of every file as it arrived, with its details left in place, a manifest listing each file, and the custody report. Viewing copies are made separately and have their details removed, so the original stays untouched.
The custody report
A PDF that states what the system recorded about each file: when it arrived, its SHA-256 fingerprint at intake, and every action taken on it. It states the result of the log check and the final fingerprint of the case log. It also tells you how to compute a file's fingerprint yourself and compare it with the report.
A clean chain, never a promise about court
We tell you exactly what we can stand behind.
We promise
- A fingerprint for every file at the moment it arrived.
- A log of everything done to it that cannot be quietly changed, with a daily fingerprint published for anyone to keep.
- Access limited to you, for this case, with every view recorded.
- A way to reach the source, when the contributor agrees.
We never promise
- That a file is genuine, accurate or admissible. That is for the court.
- That anyone will answer, or that what comes back will solve the case.
- That an anonymous contributor can be found. We do not know who they are.
An anonymous clip is a lead
South African courts generally want to know where footage came from. How far a clip can go depends on how much its source agreed to share.
- Anonymous, the default
- We hold nothing about the person. You get the clip and any answers to your questions through the receipt. It is a lead: a vehicle, a time, a direction of travel.
- Reachable, still hidden
- We hold a phone or email, encrypted, and tell the person when you ask something. You still do not see who they are. It is a better lead, and a chance to move up a level.
- Willing to make a statement
- We hold a name and contact, encrypted. They are released only after the contributor accepts your request for that case. This is evidence a prosecutor can work with.
Beside your procedure, not instead of it
Nothing on Ubonile replaces your docket, a formal statement, or a lawful request for footage. It finds leads and brings them to you safely. You decide what to do with them.
It needs nothing from SAPS IT. There is no integration, no software to install and no access to any police system. You use a web browser. Ubonile is not part of the South African Police Service and never uses its branding. You may need your commander's permission to use an outside platform, and getting it is your call.
Apply for access
Applying takes a few minutes. We phone your station before you see anything.