The city police have begun a trial, for the first time in the State, using Microsoft’s Guardian App to identify and rescue women and girls in distress situations.
Additional Director General of Police P. Kandasamy chaired a meeting in connection with the use of the App on trial for the police here on Thursday.
Police officers said that the application was hi-tech compared to the Himmat App used by the Delhi Police — from January this year — for the same purpose.
A senior police officer told The Hindu that the trial run began on Thursday and that it would go on for about six weeks before it was offered to the public.
The exercise was aimed at helping the police have a better understanding of the functioning of the application and check if the application was serving its purpose.
An alert would be sent as an SMS even when the balance in the phone was ‘zero’. It would specify the location of the sender and that the woman/girl was in danger. But, the whereabouts of the person could be tracked only if the phone had Internet connectivity.
The officer said that the person in distress could be tracked till the application was turned off. The police control room could also be called free of cost using the App.
Police personnel have formed subdivision level teams headed by the Assistant Commissioners for the trial. However, the police warned that action would be initiated against the public who indulged in mischief by sending fake alerts.
On successful completion of the trial, the police plan to create awareness about this application among the public. Initially, they plan to have a dedicated computer at the police control room for receiving alerts.
City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan, Deputy Commissioner and other police officers and officials were present at the meeting. Representatives from Microsoft received feedback from the police officers and inputs on improvising the application for serving the public better.
