K. Satyamurty for The Hindu

• Every call gets `voice logged' for future reference
• Plan to enable people to register complaints through SMS

Bangalore, May 22: This call centre earns no revenue and makes no profit. But, it has over almost 18 months, managed to give a facelift to the public image of the city police.

"The success of the `Police Dial 100' computerised complaints registering system here has been replicated in Chennai and is being expanded in the Delhi/National Capital Region. The `call centre' in Bangalore is to be expanded too," K Venkata Ramanan, General Manager, Telecom Sales and Marketing of HCL Infosystems Limited, said.

What makes "Dial 100" different from the usual police control rooms is that every call gets recorded and "voice logged" for future reference with details of time, date and name of the caller and nature of the complaint.

Locating the call

A Local Area Network (LAN) server helps the call centre personnel connect the location of the call with police patrol vehicles, through a Geographical Positioning System (GPS) that appears on the computer screen. For example, a call from a resident or accident victim in Rajajinagar, can be passed on to the nearest patrol vehicle at that time.

"The system has built-in codes to deal with various types of complaints such as a crime in progress, a fire or a road accident. This hastens response time and avoids delays like the usual `jurisdiction' disputes about which police station is responsible," explained Mr. Venkata Ramanan. The public have a fail-safe mechanism to preserve their calls and the time spent on physically visiting a police station and getting a first information report registered, accompanied by related paperwork, can be avoided in emergency situations.

Additional Commissioner of Police Vipin Gopalakrishna said: "The system is working well and we are planning to expand its applications."

The police departments that have already tried out this system have also realised other advantages. Once most police patrol vehicles are GPS-enabled, tracking their movements becomes easier. If a police vehicle on patrol remains static for too long for any reason, the control rooms can radio a message to find out what is happening and provide back-up, if needed.

The upgrades planned by HCL are to enable the public register a complaint through SMS if a voice call is not possible or even send an email. As a database of calls and their place of origin are built up, the police can identify areas that are more crime prone or roads where more accidents happen.