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Kozhikode Police to launch awareness drive
KOZHIKODE
Poor response from the people to a toll-free mobile phone number (9745 000100) to register complaints has reportedly prompted the city police to launch an awareness campaign at various levels.The toll-free number, introduced over a fortnight ago, has evoked little feedback from the public. The average number of calls a day is two and the number of Short Messaging Service (SMS) almost negligible. It was only a single call a week when introduced in the last week of May.
City Police Commissioner Anup Kuruvilla John said here on Sunday that beat officers, particularly those on the Jana Maitri scheme, were now educating all residents’ associations on the need to use the toll-free mobile number. Visiting cards containing the number are being given to all households. The police have initiated the scheme in association with mobile service provider Vodafone to widen the police-public interface.
First time
Using the SMS to register complaints has been introduced for the first time in the State. It has been successfully launched in States such as Tamil Nadu. The Madurai police range, a few months ago, launched a system where a person could alert the police about a crime by sending a SMS to ‘100.’ Each text message is given a unique identification number and forwarded to the Station House Officer. It works via an exclusively-designed software.
However, the special cellphone number of the city police here is not linked to any computer system in the control room. A Sub-Inspector handles all calls and SMSs. The city police believe the system will pick up in the coming weeks with mobile phones reaching all sections of society.
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