Citizen Portal

The Citizen Portal allows members of the public to report incidents directly to your organisation without needing a Nexalix account. Citizens can submit reports through a branded web page, receive a reference code, and check the status of their report at any time.

Note

The Citizen Reporting module must be enabled for your organisation. If you do not see Citizen Reports in the sidebar, contact your administrator or check the Modules Reference.

How it works

1. A citizen visits your organisation’s public reporting page.
2. They fill in a form describing the issue — location, description, and optional photos.
3. The system validates the submission (including CAPTCHA verification and geographic bounds) and assigns a unique reference code.
4. The citizen can use this reference code to check the status of their report at any time.
5. Your team reviews incoming reports and decides whether to approve, reject, or merge them with existing incidents.

Accessing the portal URL

The public portal URL is displayed at the top of the Citizen Reports page. You can copy this link and share it on your organisation’s website, social media, or printed materials.

Moderating reports

When citizens submit reports, they appear in the Citizen Reports list with a Pending status. As a moderator, you can:

Approve a report

Approving a report creates a new incident in the system based on the citizen’s submission. The incident inherits the location, description, and any photos from the original report.

1. Open the pending report.
2. Review the details and location.
3. Click Approve.
4. The system creates an incident and links it to the citizen report.

Reject a report

If a report is invalid, duplicated, or outside your area of responsibility, you can reject it.

1. Open the pending report.
2. Click Reject.
3. The report is marked as rejected and no incident is created.

Merge with an existing incident

If a citizen reports an issue that has already been logged, you can merge their report with the existing incident instead of creating a duplicate.

1. Open the pending report.
2. Click Merge and select the existing incident.
3. The citizen report is linked to that incident.

Status tracking for citizens

Citizens can check the status of their report by visiting the portal and entering their reference code. They will see whether the report is pending review, approved (and in progress), or resolved — without accessing any internal details of your organisation.

Security and anti-abuse

The Citizen Portal includes several measures to prevent misuse:

• CAPTCHA verification — Cloudflare Turnstile protects against bots.
• Rate limiting — Submissions are limited to prevent flooding (3 reports per 15 minutes, 10 per day from the same source).
• Geographic bounds — Reports outside your organisation’s configured area are rejected.
• Duplicate detection — The system identifies potential duplicate reports based on location proximity.
• Honeypot fields — Hidden form fields that detect automated submissions.

Best practices

• Promote the portal visibly. Place the link on your organisation’s website, in public offices, and on informational materials. The portal is only useful if citizens know about it.
• Respond promptly. Citizens who see their reports acknowledged quickly are more likely to report future issues. Aim to moderate pending reports within 24 hours.
• Use merge when possible. Multiple citizens often report the same issue (e.g., a large pothole). Merging keeps your incident list clean while preserving the citizen’s ability to track status.