Odisha’s Twin City police to launch app for women in distress

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Feb 18:

After the successful launch of a mobile application that would help the people in  Odisha’s Twin City to reach the police with ease on January 15, the Commissionerate police here now plans to launch another mobile application that will allow women in distress to send a call or a message to the Police Control Room and three of their relatives in case of an emergency.

Twin city Commissioner of Police (CP) Dr R P Sharma said, “Our department had launched the mobile application on January 15 having various help-lines like emergency number (100), women helpline (1091), traffic helpline (1095), important phone numbers, know your police station, on traffic, senior citizen, women security cell, email, social media and download forms.”

To ensure safety of working women who use public transport, the commissionerate has launched the Pink Auto service and has provided self defence training to girls. “But now we are going to launch another mobile app which will basically provide safety to employed women in distress who have android based smartphones,” the commissioner said.

“After a thorough study on ‘Himmat’ project launched by Delhi police on January 1, we are working on the project to launch it in the month of March this year. It is a cost effective project,” he added.

Explaining the working of the app, Commissioner Dr Sharma said that after downloading the app, a new user has to register with the Commissionerate Police website, after downloading a form, by sharing their name, mobile number and that of a minimum of three relatives.

Once the user registers, s/he will get an SMS on mobile number given at the time of registration with a download link and registration key. The user has to enter this key in the registration window in the application. This is a one-time process.

“In case of an emergency, the user can send an alert by just shaking her phone or by pressing the power button/soft button. As soon as the button is pressed, the camera of the phone will automatically start and capture a 30-second audio and video recording on the phone which will be transmitted to the Police Control Room, and the victim will get a call back from the PCR,” said Dr Sharma.

An SMS alert will also be sent to three relatives of the user in distress.

“All the details of the victim, including her location, time will be there in the SMS which will also be transmitted  simultaneously by the Police Control Room to the PCR vans in the area and the local police station for immediate action.

Generating false SOS alerts/ alarms, intentionally/ unintentionally, will lead to cancellation of the registration after three false SOS alerts, he said.

A total o0f 2, 000 people have downloaded the present mobile application of the commissionerate so far, Sharma revealed.

Sushree Ankita, a plus three student of Ramadevi College, said it is a welcome step by the Commissionerate police. “It will help women like us and provide safety to us while returning from the college or the work place,” she said.