The Bengaluru city police’s Suraksha app, launched a little over a year ago, has elicited an encouraging response, with as many as 84,000 downloads. However, only 250 people have made distress calls through the app till now.
The city police launched the app in April 2017, with a specific focus on women’s safety. But the app has not been restricted to one gender only and it is open to anyone to download. According to officials, both men and women have made use of the app.
In majority of instances of these 250 distress calls, people have reached out to the police to resolve issues of road rage and verbal abuse. “As soon as the person presses the panic button, we get an alert at the control room and the nearest Hoysala patrol vehicle will be sent to the spot. We have been able to resolve many cases by reaching the spot soon after the alert,” an official in the Police Department said.
Explaining the huge difference between the number of downloads and the number of panic calls made till now, a senior official in the department said, “This is probably because a lot of people are still using the police emergency number, 100.”
Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar said the initiative had been successful. “The fact that so many people have downloaded the app shows that people have been aware of it. Perhaps not many people have been in a situation where they felt the need to press the panic button. We want more people to download it and we will create more awareness on it,” he said.
‘Safety Islands’ planned
The city police are also hoping that a proposal under the Nirbhaya Fund, which seeks to set up such panic buttons in select public spaces, will help them reach out to more people. Recently, the Union government sanctioned ₹667 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund for Bengaluru.
Among the various initiatives to be taken up under the fund is the concept of ‘Safety Islands’, wherein the police will select various spots in the city to set up the panic button.
This service will be under CCTV camera surveillance and will be linked to the police control room. Any distress alert through the panic button will be immediately conveyed to the nearby Hoysala patrol vehicle.