“Hello Police”, an innovative public information system, launched in the district in December 2014 for the public to seek redressal of their grievances and alert police about antisocial activities through mobile phones has become people-friendly if the response was any indication.
After Superintendent of Police N.M. Mylvahanan launched the 24x7 system with a Common Access Number (CAN), it became a hit with more than 900 callers alerting the police in January by calling CAN ‘83000 31100’.
In January, the police received 912 calls and in February, the number of calls crossed the 1,000 mark, the SP said on Tuesday. In 28 days last month, 1,055 people called or sent messages using their mobile phones. “On an average, we have been receiving 40 calls a day since January,” the SP said.
About 97 per cent of the callers preferred voice call as the police ensured anonymity. Ramanathapuram Town police sub-division received the maximum of 316 calls, followed by Paramakudi sub-division with 188 calls and Rameswaram town sub-division with 146 calls, the SP said.
Based on the alerts, the police registered 117 First Information Reports (FIRs) and 95 Community Service Registers (CSRs) in February, he said, adding in case of 843 alerts the police intervened and warned the wrongdoers.
The success of the system rested on the fact that the police maintained anonymity of the callers, immediately intervened after receiving alerts and informed the callers of the action taken on their alerts within 24 hours, he added.
