Mumbai police is slowly but steadily going paperless.
Mumbai police is slowly but steadily going paperless. From a digital database of all its officers, issuing police notices online to having an app for emergency numbers — the police commissioner said he is implementing many new changes.
Mumbaikars can soon get in touch with control room officials via a mobile application. This move, in addition to saving the few seconds one needs to dial a number, will also be a one stop app for two emergency numbers — 100 and 103.
Datta Padsalgikar, commissioner of police, Mumbai, said that an app had been developed and was in the testing phase. “The application is aimed at reducing the time that one takes to dial an emergency number. It will also help if a person isn’t able to recollect which number to dial when in need,” Mr Padsalgikar said.
The application, which will be rolled out in the next 15 days, will be available for Android and IOS users. He also mentioned that they are looking at how to integrate the newly instated universal emergency number — 112. “We are still in talks about the universal number and how it will differ from 100,” he said.
Mr Padsalgikar, who took over as commissioner in the last week of January, said he was putting in measures to make the department’s daily activities make less use of paper.
“In this day and age we need to take every step to save paper wherever we can. As part of this one of the first steps we have started is getting the police notice to go digital,” he said. The police notice is an internal memo circulated to all police stations on a daily basis early in the morning. The police notice also informs officers about circulars and notices issued for the police department.
“We are looking at having a online server-based way for all police stations to access police notices. This will also connect all stations with a central location and to each other,” Mr Padsalgikar said.
The commissioner also spoke about making the bio-data of all police officers and personnel accessible online. “This will also help an officer or constable who has been transferred to gain information about his leaves and increments. This will help his reporting officer to also look at his previous records,” he said.
When asked about making a copy of an FIR available online, the commissioner said that an FIR is not a public document and hence cannot be made available to anybody except the complainant.
