However, the first step in bridging the trust deficit is to encourage the public to file a police complaint, free of scepticism and a Goan-based IT company has come up with an apt solution. Through the ‘Goa Police Mobile App’, filing a police complaint is just a click away.
Simply put, the mobile application that was launched in the month of July by Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar can help users reach out for help in an emergency, capture and report offences, increase vigilance, coordinate with police, create awareness about police functionality and more importantly let users source for various emergency services depending upon their location.
It is a public benefit application developed for the citizens and visitors of the state of Goa. This application is developed by Karbens Infotech Pvt Ltd and is supported by Manipal Hospitals Goa as the latter’s social responsibility initiative.
“With the sudden spate of crime in the State the thought first occurred to us at Karbens that we need to change the way we approach policing. Also we realized that the best way to increase security was by getting the people and the Police force to work together,” said Rohit Barreto, Managing Director.
A team of five worked on the idea that was conceptualized with an intention to create a crowd-sourced model of policing wherein the responsibility of keeping our state secure is also shared with the citizens; In this system every citizen would be provided with a tool for capturing offences/ violations and reporting the same to the Police.
“In short, the intention was to enable the citizens to be the eye of the police and create a much more effective policing model and to also enable Goa Police to reach out to the users of the application and update them with important information,” added members of the team that are based out of Verna.
With this in mind, they first approached Goa Police in May 2012 who were quite eager in implementing the solution; however, there was some scepticism on how people would accept this system and its effectiveness.
“We then presented this solution and its benefits to our MLA Michael Lobo, who from thereon was instrumental in pushing for this system to be implemented,” added Barreto who lives in Calangute.
“We request the citizens as well as visitors of the State to use this application and join hands with Goa Police in ensuring a happier and safer Goa and India in whole,” added the 33-year-old Barreto.
It is to be noted that once the complaint is submitted, the complaint is directed to the Goa Police Control Room who upon processing the information directs it to the concerned department for further processing and report build-up. All information regarding the said report can at any time be tracked by contacting the Goa Police Control Room. Additionally, Goa Police can also stay in touch with the users of the application through the notification system, by directing essential information across.
The Report Offence and Traffic Violation Buttons are the prime functionalities of the application. These functions guide the user, enabling them to capture and report offences and traffic violations in a structured manner thus making the information more intelligible. If a user at anytime witnesses anyone breaking the law or witnesses any irregularities within the State, the user through this functionality can compile a report comprising of image or video evidence of the offence by clicking the “new report” button. In addition, the user can record a narration of the events, and add the location details of the offence. All this can be done in an offline mode and saved for further alteration or can be directly sent to Goa Police for processing at any point in time. A saved report can be accessed by clicking the “view reports” button. The user can access this report and add more information to it; once the report is ready, the user can send this information to Goa Police by clicking the “send” button. The user will require an internet connection to send a report. Once the report is submitted the user will receive an acknowledgement along with a reference number for follow-up with Goa Police.
The application also helps users to find help in terms of nearest utilities such as fuel stations, tow truck services, mechanics, police stations and hospitals through the Emergency Services button, which uses the GPS coordinates of the user to find the nearest utilities available.
The Goa Police application is currently available for free download in the android and iTunes store. Upon downloading the application, the first step is the registration process, which includes name and contact number – This process is vital to help Goa Police reach out and update the user with information about reported traffic violations and offences. Upon completing the registration, the next step is updating emergency contact numbers in the “Emergency Contact Numbers” screen where the users enter the contact numbers of the persons to be notified in the event of using the SOS feature. This list can be modified at anytime by clicking on the settings button.
The SOS functionality is a key functionality in times of emergency. Once the SOS button is clicked, it will try and get the users GPS co-ordinate and send this information along with a message requesting for help to all contacts saved in the “Emergency Contact Numbers” page. Certain Operating Systems will require the user’s permission to enable the GPS functionality. The user can also avail help by clicking the call police or call ambulance buttons, which directly call the said services.
