A streamlined process to reduce the number of times a person has to go to the police station, an SOS panic button, easy reporting of incidents: these are just some of the features of the newly launched Karnataka State Police mobile app.
The app has had humble beginnings and was first developed by two engineering students from Chikkamagaluru in 2015.
- SOS panic button
- Option to report incident with photo and video clip
- Section for missing people
- Database search for stolen vehicles
At the time, Santosh Babu, Superintendent of Police, Gadag, was heading the Chikkamagaluru district police. Two engineering students from Adichunchanagiri Institute of Technology pitched a prototype of such an app in 2015.
“They understood the needs of policing and came up with an app in record time. It was launched as an app for the Chikkamagaluru district police and was a success,” Mr. Babu said.
Nithin Kamath, one of the engineering students who developed the app, said, “Its success inspired the Tumakuru and Ballari district police to launch similar apps and we worked on them as well. There was interest evinced from other districts too.” It was time to scale up, by which time Mr. Kamath and his friends had completed their studies and launched their own firm Capulus Technologies in Chikkamagaluru. They stepped into the scene once more so that the app could be expanded for the entire State police force.
“The same students who first developed the app worked on this version also,” said Kamal Pant, Additional Director-General of Police, Law and Order.
CM’s praise
The engineers worked on the Karnataka State Police app for a year. “It will go a long way to achieve our goal, make policing janasnehi (people friendly),” said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy after he launched the app.
The app has several additional features such as ‘report an incident’ which allows users to upload a photo or a video clip. These reports will be treated as petitions, passed on to the officials concerned and SMS updates sent on their status. There is also a section for missing people and a database search for stolen vehicles, linked to the national Vaahan database of stolen vehicles.
The SOS panic button when used sends out alerts not only to the control room but also to a set of chosen contacts, with your location. The app uses GPS to show the nearest police station and the jurisdictional police station at any point where you are, to come in handy in emergency situations.
In the coming days, updates on Sakaala services such as various verification processes will be provided to applicants through the app.