[Jignesh]

Hello All,

Came across below piece of news in newpapers today:

Harassed on road? Soon, SMS/tweet to tell cops - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/20039157.cms

This is an initiative by alumni of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, along with Mumbai police.
One can log on to www.indiaoye.org or post on their Facebook page to report crimes against women. Smartphones users can also download the campaign's mobile application that facilitates lodging a complaint.
The system will be pilot tested in Chembur-Deonar are for a fortnight.

On receiving a complaint, system will display a red spot on an online map. The complaint is simultaneously activated at the regional police control room, where officials will verify the complaint received via the caller's mobile number or email id. The persons calling or emailing can keep their identity confidential. "The idea is to create a safety map. A concentration of red spots will indicate the presence of unsafe areas.

Quotes from the article:
"We realized women were scared to report everyday violence at police stations. Even those willing to do so said they would spend half their lives in police stations given how slow procedures work," says Manwinder Singh (29), founder of IndiaOYE, pointing out that police often reflect patriarchal reactions of society. Women are often deterred from recording crime due to insensitive language or uncomfortable questions posed.

Its benefits could go beyond mapping. Additional commissioner of police (East) Qaiser Khalid believes the initiative has great potential. He explains a scenario in which a school junction routinely shows up in the real-time map for harassment. "Technology will help us better deploy personnel at such junctions," he says. The control room, under his surveillance, will monitor if the complainant is satisfied with the police action.
Unquote.

What do you say friends? Will this initaitive help in curbing crime against women on Indian streets?

I feel such initiative should also be started against rash drivers, those breaking traffic signals & against cars parked in no-parking zones. As Traffic police can not monitor each & every corner of a huge city like Mumbai / Delhi, a citizen initiative to report such offences will definitely help.

Moderators: Kindly merge this post with related threads, if any.

Thanks,

[mkpiyengar]

Nice Initiative.

Though all these initiatives are very good and would be effective too. What remains to be seen is

1. How this is implemented in long term basis?

2. What action is taken to rectify the situation arising out of this..

I might be pessimistic, but cannot help that in current situation.

Unless there is a strong and punitive action taken immediately, all these tools would not act as strong deterrent.

Fear of being punished immediately and held accountable for the actions are the only way going forward.

Cheers
MKP

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by mkpiyengar

Nice Initiative.
Fear of being punished immediately and held accountable for the actions are the only way going forward.

Thank you MKP.

Yes. Such initiative will atleast think the offenders twice before offending a traffic rules because someone might record their offence & report to local authorities.

I understand that Traffic police cannot be present at each & every corner of the city. Also installing CCTV cameras at every junction is a costly & it is a tedious job to maintain the hardware / software for the same.

Say if there is a initiative, where people can click photographs of cars breaking traffic signals & post these photographs at a designated place. Upon receipt of these photographs (evidences) offenders can be fined / brought to book. Such initiatives are possible today because almost everyone on the street has a camera phone & atleast 30% of people have internet access on their mobile phones.

Hello All,

Such initiative for traffic offences will also enable the Traffic police to identify specific spots in city from where maximum offences are reported. Thus they can plan to modify traffic / deploy personnel at these troubled places.

Thanks,

[2000rpm]

Really good initiative and a very innovative idea.

I really appreciate Tata Institute of Social Sciences for the kind of work it promotes. Recently they also undertook a initiative to develop the M-Ward (Mankhurd, Govandi areas)

Here is the link to the initiative http://platinum.tiss.edu/m-ward-initiative/

[sushantr5]

Originally Posted by Jignesh

Thank you MKP.

Yes. Such initiative will atleast think the offenders twice before offending a traffic rules because someone might record their offence & report to local authorities.

I understand that Traffic police cannot be present at each & every corner of the city. Also installing CCTV cameras at every junction is a costly & it is a tedious job to maintain the hardware / software for the same.

Say if there is a initiative, where people can click photographs of cars breaking traffic signals & post these photographs at a designated place. Upon receipt of these photographs (evidences) offenders can be fined / brought to book. Such initiatives are possible today because almost everyone on the street has a camera phone & atleast 30% of people have internet access on their mobile phones.

Hello All,

Such initiative for traffic offences will also enable the Traffic police to identify specific spots in city from where maximum offences are reported. Thus they can plan to modify traffic / deploy personnel at these troubled places.

Thanks,

Adding to this, for the purpose of traffic violations...

Every car number is linked to UID same a gas cylinders. Every UID/Aadhar should have valid contact details. Now Vigilant citizen spot and capture offenders for traffic violations and upload photo/video to center. Now center based on car number will initiate action and inform offender through sms or any other possible mean. Within stipulated time offender should pay fine otherwise his all UID linked services will get affected. He can not even get domestic gas cylinder uptill his UID account is clear. And Vigilant citizen should get some percentage of that fine for his activity.

Now if car number/UID/mobile number is not linked for offender then fine will increased as time is passed. He will not get any services or at least at subsidized rate. Now if somebody does not pay fine for lifetime, then harass him at the time of car purchase, resale.

This can be implemented easily. Once photo is uploaded its traffic police departments responsiblity to track offender at any cost. Police can add tracking cost to fine as well.

If this is implemented then some people find a job of catching and tracking offenders. And with current situation I think fine amount collected would be so much that entire police system can be modernised at no extra cost.

[mkpiyengar]

My point was all these initiatives start of well but then falls flat due to in action or due to lack of interest.

For e.g.

1. RTO Initiative to report Errant Auto drivers in Mumbai. It started of and was flooded with complaints. Now, I do not know what happened after that. Some Auto's are repeat offenders, who will bring them to book ? For Denial of service, for tampered meters etc.

2. All these Indica/Tempo Traveller etc. cabbies have a sticker saying if driver does not follow rules call a number and report. I've read in this forum itself guys getting verbally abused for reporting misbehavior.

And so on and so forth.

Of late it seems that all the authorities was to just involve in symbolic gestures to appease, without having proper solution. Whether it is Supreme court or CBI investigation etc.


Cheers
MKP

[fine69]

Originally Posted by Jignesh

The idea is to create a safety map. A concentration of red spots will indicate the presence of unsafe areas.

Now the cops need smartphone users' help to determine unsafe areas.



Umpteen calls that go unanswered on women helpline, rape cases hogging the first 5 pages of my daily morning read and the only thing that cops can do about it is look at those red dots, I'm not sure if the ACP here was mocking the founder when he said its a good initiative, I think we definitely missed the sarcasm.

This is just another joke, a joke because initiatives like these don't really have a significant or long-term impact.

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

If this is implemented then some people find a job of catching and tracking offenders. And with current situation I think fine amount collected would be so much that entire police system can be modernised at no extra cost.

Those are really good ideas Sushant.

Initiatives like these will definitely help in making our city roads little safer. These activities are people driven & more the number of people participate the better will be the outcome. Once the offenders know that anyone on street can catch them red handed, they will surely think twice before indulging in petty traffic offences.

Originally Posted by mkpiyengar

My point was all these initiatives start of well but then falls flat due to in action or due to lack of interest.

Originally Posted by fine69

This is just another joke, a joke because initiatives like these don't really have a significant or long-term impact.

Hello MKP & Fine69,

Point noted. Yes I accept that generally initiatives fall flat due to lack of interest from large number of people. I am equally pessimistic about the intention of authorities in implementing road safety measures. That is it we,the people who will have to take some initiative.

Also we will have to start somewhere. I mean that roads here are really a dangerous place. We have all seen car drivers literally ready to fight with others over petty issues. Innocent people are getting killed over no fault of theirs.

Thanks,

[mkpiyengar]

Fully Agree with you. We should all pitch in every possible way.

Cheers
MKP

[apachelongbow]

I dont know why some members are so pessimistic regarding new initiatives. After all how much effort it takes to register on a website and send sms/tweets to create a database of unsafe areas or habitual offenders?
Afraid that this will not work? Is it not similar to not voting in elections and then blaming all and sundry for the morons elected to parliament?
Lets give such new initatives a thumping welcome, after all what does it cost us in time and money? And the results might just help clean up our cities...

[2000rpm]

I think such an application will prove to be very useful for areas which you are not familiar with.

A heat map indicating the "Be Careful" areas can not only help women but also men. I have not used the app so far, but would it to have a feature which will provide the nature of threat on the map

For example: Different Color Codes for Eve-teasing, Pick-Pocketing, Mugging, etc. This will help you prepare for the situation in a more robust way. If I were to travel in a Mugging prone area at night, I can ensure that my car windows are rolled up and doors locked. Plus will make it a point to not fall for tricks which will make me stop the car.

Will research and try to connect with the Initiative Lead to suggest such ideas. I am also a TISSian

[fine69]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

I dont know why some members are so pessimistic regarding new initiatives. After all how much effort it takes to register on a website and send sms/tweets to create a database of unsafe areas or habitual offenders?
Afraid that this will not work? Is it not similar to not voting in elections and then blaming all and sundry for the morons elected to parliament?
Lets give such new initatives a thumping welcome, after all what does it cost us in time and money? And the results might just help clean up our cities...

My point was that if top cops don't know the unsafe areas in their city then they should simply keep mum (I'd prefer something graphic though) rather than appreciating such initiatives. If they were doing their job properly we wouldn't need such initiatives to begin with.

Instead of asking their teams to get their act together and start filing FIRs the way they should be, start behaving with female citizens the way they behave with their mother/sister/wife at home (assuming that they do behave like gentlemen) the top cops start appreciating such initiatives. This is as awkward as it can get but nobody seems to realize this.

What is the patrolling team doing in the city if they need red dots to tell them which area has issues.

Tomorrow somebody is going to tell me that there's an initiative through which people can report the govt. departments (along with locations) which are asking for or accepting bribes through smartphone and red dots will tell the central govt or vigilance team which department/city is most corrupted?!! Come on!!!

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by fine69

My point was that if top cops don't know the unsafe areas in their city then they should simply keep mum (I'd prefer something graphic though) rather than appreciating such initiatives. If they were doing their job properly we wouldn't need such initiatives to begin with.

I am sure you are not the kind who would expect the police to do their job, not using any inputs/help from the citizens. Its our job to help govern the city better, its the job of any civil society. Safety is everyone's business.
If the top cop gets help from technology and citizens to help pinpoint troubled areas, why not? It will help him plan his resources better. We have to admit, we lack resources in terms of men and material in any Indian city's police force.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

I am sure you are not the kind who would expect the police to do their job, not using any inputs/help from the citizens. Its our job to help govern the city better, its the job of any civil society. Safety is everyone's business.
If the top cop gets help from technology and citizens to help pinpoint troubled areas, why not? It will help him plan his resources better. We have to admit, we lack resources in terms of men and material in any Indian city's police force.

My point was that if someone isn't competent to do their job then instead of trying to correct that they are asking citizens to do what the cops should be doing. Nothing wrong in it except that they get paid the same salary month on month irrespective of the fact whether they deliver what is expected out of them or not.

I'm not against the police force leveraging technology, but if they need citizens to tell them the very basics then no amount of technology is going to be enough. Are we saying that they have taken appropriate action against all unsafe areas that they were aware of prior to the 'red dot' campaign?

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

For example: Different Color Codes for Eve-teasing, Pick-Pocketing, Mugging, etc. This will help you prepare for the situation in a more robust way. If I were to travel in a Mugging prone area at night, I can ensure that my car windows are rolled up and doors locked. Plus will make it a point to not fall for tricks which will make me stop the car

That is a very good idea 2000rpm.

This color indicators can be extended for areas that report frequent pick poketing or stealing of mobiles so that people are extra careful. When it comes to cars, it can indicate a area that reports high amount of laptop / mobile thefts from cars.

Originally Posted by fine69

My point was that if top cops don't know the unsafe areas in their city then they should simply keep mum

I appreacite your comments about authorities not doing their jobs the way they are supposed to. But by due to some reason or others they (authorities) are not able to perform their basic duties.

In such a situation citizens are left with no option but to come with initiative like this one where they can help the authorities nab the offenders. I remember a incident in Bangalore there eve teasers made some inappropriate gesters to a female & their photos were posted on Bangalore police's facebook page. Within two days these offenders were arrested.

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

If the top cop gets help from technology and citizens to help pinpoint troubled areas, why not? It will help him plan his resources better. We have to admit, we lack resources in terms of men and material in any Indian city's police force.

Yes. The police department is severely short of men & weapons. Walk into a police station & you will see most of the officers busy with petty criminals or busy in serving the VIP's. Citizen initiative like will this will surely help them plan personnel deployment in troubled areas.

Thanks,