JOIN USStaff on police control room vans will soon get mobile phones from the department to ensure that people in distress get speedy help from them.
Beginning July-end, the cell phones will help the PCR vans staff to reach a crime spot quicker after they get a distress call, as the officers will be able to contact the victim directly.
Now, often when a victim makes a call to the police control room, a distress call is sent from there over the wireless to PCR vans deputed nearby the crime spot.
The PCR vans then have to locate the exact crime spot – and this can sometimes take time.
And when the crew are unable to trace the location, they call the victim's number – available with the PCR – from their own personal mobile phones.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (PCR) Satvir Katara said the PCR staff were sometimes reluctant tyo make calls from their personal numbers.
But now they will use official numbers without hesitation and save time.
“They will be now more accountable,” the officer said.
The average response time now is between six and eight minutes. But with the official cell phones, the average response time is expected to come down to four to five minutes.
The Union home ministry recently sanctioned the proposal for mobile phones sent to it two and half years, an officer said.
The total number of mobile phones sanctioned is 1,600.
“We have around 800 PCR vans on roads and we will give a mobile phone to each van. For now, we will use 800 and rest of them are as per need,” said Katara.
A mobile phone subscriber company is providing phones worth Rs 5,000 each free of cost after bagging contract to provide the numbers.
The government has sanctioned calls worth Rs 508 each month for each number.
A police control room van officer told Deccan Herald: “At least now, we don’t have to shell out money from our pocket to call victims every time.”