In a fresh initiative to enable a sense of security for the city’s elderly, the Delhi Police’s beat officers will be required to take a selfie whenever they visit a senior citizen.
The policeman will then be required to upload the selfie on a mobile app especially designed for senior citizens.
These selfies will be monitored by the Station House Officer (SHO) and “strict action” will be taken against any beat policeman who fails to make a physical visit to a senior citizen when he or she seeks help through the app.
Named the ‘Senior Citizen Mobile App’, it was launched by Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on Saturday, in the presence of Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma.
SOS button Like ‘Himmat’, the app for women’s safety, senior citizens too will be able to call the police at the click of an SOS button in the app.
This will connect the caller to the senior citizen helpline number 1291, even as simultaneous alerts in the form of an SMS will be sent to the area SHO and beat officer. Within seconds, the police will have the location details of the senior citizen who made the SOS call.
“The operator with the helpline number will try to gather the reason for the senior citizen’s distress. If the user is unable to respond, the beat constable will be swiftly dispatched to the user’s house to verify the reason for distress,” said a senior police officer.
To avail the facility, senior citizens need to download the app from Google Play and register themselves with it.
Ably supported app To ensure more elderly persons are registered on the app, the police will also inform them about it, if and when they happen to visit the police station for any work.
The application will also contain the names and numbers of the beat constables of the area so that they can be contacted at any time by the senior citizen.
The beat policemen, meanwhile, will have a list as well as other details of all the senior citizens in his area. The app will also remind him if he has missed his periodical visit to any elderly person in his area.
Until now, senior citizens were able to register with the Delhi Police by making calls to the police on the helpline number for them, through email, or by making personal visits.
Enabling interactions As of Friday, 27,645 senior citizens had already registered themselves with the Delhi Police. The number is expected to go up substantially with the help of the interactive app.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of several violent crimes against senior citizens in the recent months, the Delhi Police used the International Day of Older Persons on Saturday to interact with the elderly.
