SP Siddharth Kaushal trains cops on women safety through Disha App

Ongole: Prakasam district SP Siddharth Kaushal conducted a workshop for the police officers and staff on the Disha App, for the risk identification and vulnerability mapping to enhance women's safety at the Police Kalyanamandapam here on Friday.

Siddharth told the DSPs, CIs, circle office staff and technical assistants about process of receiving and resolving the complaints from the affected women through the Disha App. He focussed on identifying the vulnerable areas of sexual offences against women, marking the areas on Google maps, steps to be taken by the officers and staff to overcome any issues encountered in resolving the complaints at the field level, through the mapping and app. He explained them on creating awareness on how to set up surveillance on identified areas within each police station limits, steps to be taken to coordinate with other departments and creating awareness among the public.

The SP explained that once the victim clicked the SOS on the Disha App, her location details, phone number, address details will be forwarded to the nearest police station by the control room at DGP's office, also by communicating to the district control room. He said that they would regularly keep monitoring the identification and geotagging of vulnerable crime areas, maintaining strong surveillance by keeping regular beats round-the-clock, and verify the frequency of patrolling to provide efficient service to the women through the Disha App.

About 2.17 lakh women installed the Disha app in the Prakasam district, Sidharth informed, adding that that a dedicated supporting personnel team is working in the Disha Call Centre at District Police Office in Ongole to effectively attend to the complaints received through the app. He said that they have already registered 10 FIRs based on the 54 calls received from Disha App. 297 Disha beats in the Ongole Municipal Corporation area are given to the Disha police station staff and counselled 279 misbehaving persons based on them. He informed that a total of 487 vulnerable areas have been identified across the district, and special surveillance is put in place and 24x7 patrols being conducted in those areas for women protection.

Additional SP B Ravicandra, OSD K Chowdeswari, Disha DSP M Dhanunjayudu, DSB DSP B Mariyadasu, other DSPs in the district and other staff also participated in this workshop.