Cops to ‘text’ public on possible crimes

Hyderabad: In a novel move to avert crimes and spread caution about a possible offence, the Hyderabad Police are planning to send SMS alerts to people directly.

Police claim that the new system will help people contact police in case of emergency and they could reach the place of offence within 10 minutes.

According to officials, the Group SMS scheme is in its final stages and will be launched soon. This system is being developed by a team of police officials from IT Cell in the Commissionerate. “Registering a case after theft and investigating the same is regular aspect. But bringing awareness and alerting people and educate them on how to be on high alert with the help of a new tool will help police even in nabbing culprits in shortest possible time,” said a senior police official. As part of this exercise, the police took up a drill on October 16 by sending SMS to hundreds of people from the IT Cell of Hyderabad City Police. The messages alerted general public about offenders who were on prowl posing as policemen. It pointed out that some men were insisting women to remove their gold ornaments claiming that chain snatchers were moving around and were decamping with the gold by diverting their attention. The message told the recipients that if they came across any such person they should call the police who would reach within ten minutes and catch the thieves.

According to City Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy, if a theft case was reported from a gold shop of a particular locality, the SMS service would alert all the gold shops in the city so that a similar case could be averted and the thief be caught.

The police have targeted between five to 10 lakhs select members who are prone to be victims or representatives of civil society. They have also categorised them into different set of groups. The groups include, Mythri committee members, members of religious places, hotels, jewellery shops, private security services, ATM centres, bar & restaurants, function halls, government offices and student represent- atives. More than 30 such groups have been identified by police and their mobile numbers have been added in the SMS alert system.