Hyderabad police app Hawk Eye gets gold

The app, aimed at making public as citizen police, has got about 3.5 lakh users

Hyderabad Police Commissioner M. Mahendar Reddy and his team receiving the gold award for best IT initiative for security from Union Minister of IT P.P. Choudhary and State IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy at the valedictory of the 2Oth National Conference on e-governance in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

Hawk Eye, the mobile app launched by the Hyderabad police, was awarded the gold here on Tuesday, at the 20th National E-Governance Conference, for its innovative approach and the confidence that it has been able to generate among the users.

The app has got about 3.5 lakh users.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner M. Mahendar Reddy told

The Hindu that the app was developed to transform the public as citizen police. The app empowers people to become police without uniform, he said. According to him, a person who has downloaded the app can send a message or photo or video clip of any irregularity or crime taking place and the central server will download it.

Identity kept anonymous

Then the message is immediately sent to the nearest police station or patrol on real-time basis for immediate action as the data sent is geotagged. And most importantly what makes the app unique is that it has a system where the police report back to the sender of the message on the action taken and the sender’s identity is kept anonymous, he said.

According to him, public safety is a shared responsibility and this app has enabled that feature to stay dynamic.

In the last two years, the police have received about 17,000 actionable calls and almost all calls were attended to. This apart, there is an SOS system where a person in distress can alert the police just at the click of a button, said Mr. Mahendar Reddy.

Telangana has been investing heavily on building infrastructure for the police. Last year it spent about Rs.30 crore on upgrading the Cyber Crime Station and Cyber Forensic Laboratory making it one of the best in the country.