Abhishek Yadav, ASP Bulandshahr
With the emphasis on paper work and love for registers and new records that the police organization has, bringing technology to police has always been a hard nut to crack. The resistance for full scale deployment of CCTNS coming from all corners of the country is a testimony to that. Nonetheless, throughout the country, significant and admirable initiatives have been taken by various State Police setups in developing applications and web portals to alleviate the misery of the common man. From reporting lost items online to issuing traffic advisories and creating remote FIR registration kiosks, these initiatives are worthy of admiration and replication. Here are some such ventures:
Reporting a Lost Item/Crime
Delhi Police Lost Report:
This mobile application facilitates hassle free lodging of report with Delhi Police for articles/documents lost in Delhi and gives a printable copy of the report to the complainant. This can be done by the complainant either by downloading the app from
Play Store or by going to the link from the DP website.
Setu - Surat Police: "Setu – Lets Bridge the Gap" is an application to bridge gap between people and police to build Safer Communities at the tap on your smart phone.
Application can be used for reporting crime, distress messaging and to know traffic rules that you should follow for your safety. Females can use this application to know their rights and laws related to them.
Crime Reporting – Allows users to report all kind of cognizable crime quickly, discretely, and efficiently, providing police with details from the scene of crime. Now report Crime with the ability to capture image, video, audio, and crime tip descriptions.
Additional features includes "Safety box", "Traffic Rules", "QnC (Query and Complaint)" loaded with essential safety tools like maps, rules and emergency contact numbers.
Traffic Police
Delhi Traffic Police: The app performs the following functions:
Information about traffic alerts and advisories.
Fare and distance calculator while using auto-rickshaw, taxi and radio cab
Lodging complaints against autos, taxi in case of harassment, overcharging and misbehave.
Locating nearest pit for vehicles towed away by Traffic police parked illegally.
Direct calls to emergency numbers in case of exigency.
Bangalore Traffic Info:
Get live traffic on maps and alerts directly from Traffic Police
Report traffic problems from the app itself
Women Help Line - One touch Distress Help
Raise Auto Rickshaw complaints and track the status
Rate your Auto Rickshaw ride using Sugama Savari - Happy Auto app
Check for traffic fines for any vehicle number
Upload violations using Public Eye feature
One click call to BTP traffic management center
SOS Apps for Women in Distress
Nirbhaya@Noida:
Nirbhaya@Noida is an emergency service, comprised of an android emergency application, which can send a distress call or emergency message to UP Police officials and specified contact or group in an emergency situation faced by a woman.
On pressing the SOS button, a distress call is placed to the Control room.
The concerned SHO, CO , Addl. SP and SSP receive the SMS with location and so do the relatives she registers in the app. Control room can track the location of the women as they get the GPS coordinates real time (and even if there is no internet connectivity with lesser accuracy).
The SOS call can be initiated by either pressing the Power/Lock button for 3 seconds or shaking the phone. A video is automatically sent from the phone to the control room.
Himmat @ Delhi Police
This is a free application highly recommended for women in Delhi launched by Delhi Police. User needs to register at Delhi Police website. After successful registration, user gets registration key(OTP) which needs to be entered to complete application configuration. As soon as the user of Himmat app raises the SOS alert, the location information and audio-video is transmitted to Delhi Police control room. Delhi Police can then immediately send the nearest Police help to the victim.
ICE @ Mumbai Police
This is an SOS Distress message app as well as a disaster response app. Key features are:
Send SOS distress message with just one touch
Tips on Personal Safety and Cyber Safety
Easy access to guidelines for disaster preparedness, first aid and police / ambulance phone numbers
Find the nearest hospitals automatically based on your GPS location. Also, search for hospitals across major cities in the country
Store critical information useful during emergency such as:
Contact details of Family members, Doctors and SOS contacts
Current and past medication, Blood group, Allergies etc.
There exist a number of distress call applications by private developers but these three represent the efforts of the Police in becoming the main player in such emergency scenarios. Some of the shortcomings of the Mumbai Police app which was the first one (to be followed by the Noida app, Nirbhaya and quite recently by DP's Himmat) like a siren blaring out as the SOS button was pressed and no idea of the location without internet connectivity have been rectified in the application being used in Noida.
Remote FIR Registration Kiosk
Bengaluru City Police has become the first police org to launch a remote FIR kiosk that allows the citizen to register an FIR irrespective of the location of the crime. Equipped with Cisco TelePresence system with high-definition video and high-quality audio; a touch screen, virtual keyboard and Cisco collaboration technology, the kiosk will allow citizens to launch a live collaboration session with a designated police
officer based at the Traffic Management Centre.
The complainant can sign, print and scan documents virtually as part of the experience. They will also get an opportunity to review the complaint with an expert, thus ensuring that the FIR filed is error free. Once the FIR is filed, the citizen will receive a print copy of the FIR as an instant acknowledgement. Through this kiosk, citizens of Bengaluru will be able to register cases freely; and will provide BCP a realistic view of the crime rates in the city.
Public Information Apps
CUG @TN Police
The app contains the CUG numbers of the police personnel of Tamil Nadu and you can make groups of contacts as per your requirements.
Hawk Eye @ Hyderabad Police