Ongole: SP's move helps trace 525 missing mobile phones in four months

Ongole: The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) designed by Prakasam district SP Malika Garg helped the department in tracing 525 mobile phones missed in the last four months. The complainants, who received their mobile phones back within a few days, are all praising the SP and the district police staff for their initiative and efforts.

The police usually don't register a missing mobile complaint as it adds to the number of pending cases. So, the public, who lost mobile phones either by theft or misplaced by them, makes a formal complaint to the police to avoid unnecessary issues if someone misuses the lost phone. But SP Malika Garg changed the situation in Prakasam district and insisted all station house officers must register the complaint and start the procedure to trace the missing mobile phones.

The SP launched a special initiative, Missing Mobile Tracing, and created a new proforma to receive the complaint of lost mobile phones, by designing a special procedure to identify the lost phones and to envisage the difficulties of the victims in giving complaints in the past and their woes due to lost mobiles. Now, people can go to the police station as soon as they lost their phone, fill out the form and hand it over at the reception counter, and receive the acknowledgement.

The staff at the police station investigates the complaint and sends the details to the IT Core team for tracing of the mobile phone with the high-end technology available with them. "Earlier there were some difficulties in lodging a complaint of lost mobiles at the PS, but now the police promptly receive the complaints and trace out the mobile phone in a short time and hand it over to the victims," J Mary Rani from Ongole highly lauded the district SP.

With the initiative, Prakasam police have traced about 525 mobile phones in the span of four months and are confident that they will find all mobile phones immediately when a new SIM card is placed in them. The SP handed over 500th recovered mobile phone to its owner at her office on Monday and said that they are entering the missing mobile phone complaints also in the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), to trace it anywhere in the country. She said that they received 2,162 complaints on missing mobile phones in the last four months and has traced 525 of them successfully. She estimated that the police have handed over at least Rs 52.50 lakh worth of property to its owners under the initiative.

K Ramaiah from Kandukuru town, owner of mobile phone, acclaimed the district SP and the police for tracing his phone and giving it to him within a short time after filing a complaint at the police station. The SP Malika Garg announced that the Prakasam Police are always at the forefront to provide the best services to the people through innovative programmes and informed the public to lodge complaints at the concerned police station, if they lost their mobile phones.