The Chandigarh Police on Tuesday launched a mobile application ‘Raksha’ that will allow women to send distress alert to Police Control Room and their relatives, in case of any emergency. The mobile application was launched by Member of Parliament from Chandigarh, Kirron Kher.
This app has been named as Smart 24x7 App and will be renamed as ‘Raksha’ on google play store. This application is free of cost for one year. “Using this hi-tech application, the women in the city will now get police assistance within five minutes, as they press a button or shake their phone after installing the application,” said Kher.
The app will not only cater the females, but also senior citizens who have smartphones and travel alone late in the nights. Kher lauded Chandigarh Police’s efforts to use technology for better policing and helping females and senior citizen in the city.
Explaining the app, RP Upadhyay, IGP of Chandigarh police, said after downloading it, a new user has to register with Chandigarh Police website by sharing their name, mobile number and that of a minimum of two relatives or friends.
Once the User is registered with this app, the user will get a registration key, through SMS on mobile number given at the time of registration. The user has to enter this key in the registration window in the application. This is a one-time process.
While in an emergency, the user can send an alert to their nearby police officials, by shaking the phone or by pressing the power button multiple times. “As soon as the panic button is pressed, it will trigger a 30-second audio and video recording on the phone which will be relayed to the Police Control Room, and the victim will get a call back from the PCR,” said RP Upadhyay.
An SMS alert will also be sent to the friends and relatives, along with the accurate location of the user. A status will be posted on the user’s Facebook and Twitter timeline, which will be connected to the App.
All the details of user, including her location, time will be there in the SMS which will also be transmitted simultaneously by the Police Control Room to the Police Patrol cars in the area.
Senior citizens of Chandigarh can also use this mobile app, whenever they encounter any difficulty or are trapped in a problem, added the police official.
The police however cautioned people not to misuse the App. This mobile app is made to be used only when there is a threat. “Generating false alerts, intentionally or unintentionally, will lead to cancellation of the registration after 3 such (False SOS alerts) incidents. The user must report in police control room, if in case they want to re-register and activate the facility,” said the IGP.
On the occasion, IGP also declared that a complaint kiosk “iClick’ will be started, to lodge complaints. “With the help of iClick, the citizens can lodge complaint, at their nearby ATM machine kiosk and the police party will approach the complainant as soon as possible. The kiosk will be launched on January 27,” said Upadhyay.