The State police have implemented a unique system where updates and status reports of all FIRs, and requests under Sakaala are sent directly to the user’s mobile phone over SMS. This ‘SMS Gateway' was inaugurated in November 2012.
Here’s how it works: As soon as you file an FIR, your mobile number is entered in the database with the FIR. The complainant gets an SMS giving out the details of the FIR. The user will again get an automatic SMS alert when the case is closed or a chargesheet is filed. This prevents the locality police from denying information to the complainant.
Twenty-one services provided by the department have been brought under Sakaala. Alerts on these services too are sent to the users through SMS gateway. According to Praveen Sood, Additional Director General of Police, Police Computer Wing, the SMS Gateway has been one of the most successful citizen-centric mechanisms, playing a major role in boosting transparency. On an average, 5000 SMSes are triggered across the State everyday through the Gateway, says Sood.
Social networking
Taking the social networking route to connect with the citizens, the Bangalore City police had launched a page on Facebook. Likewise, all the district police have now started their own blogs on wordpress for meaningful communication with the citizens. The Bangalore police Facebook page today has 15,653 followers and growing. The police have been running many online awareness campaigns on the page. The Bangalore City Traffic Police Facebook page is even more popular, with 70,168 followers.
Encouraged by the online engagement, the City traffic police have launched a campaign ‘Public Eye’ where any citizen can take a snap of any traffic violation in the City and upload the image. The citizens can also track the status of their complaint through SMS gateway and also online. The campaign has been very successful says M A Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police(Traffic & Security).
The State police was the first in the country to connect all its 916 police stations, 400 circles and other offices through intranet, co-ordinated from the City through a Data Centre in Madiwala.
