It was a really testing time for the staff of Hoysala patrolling vehicle-78 of Upparpet police station who received an SoS message around 4.34 p.m. The message was that an unemployed graduate, who had come to Bengaluru in search of a job, was trying to end his life in a guest house at Gandhinagar.
Police Head Constable Manjunath Naikar and his senior Assistant Sub-Inspector Govindaraju reached the spot within 7 minutes, and broke open the door of the room. The youth was rescued and handed over to his family after counselling.
The staff not only received appreciation for saving a life in the nick of the time, but also set new standards for Hoysala teams.
Taking the real-time experience to the next level, senior police officials in the jurisdiction have directed the inspector in charge of Hoysala operations to conduct a trial run to bring the response time down to 7 minutes.
“It has been a practice for every new inspector and senior police officer to get used to the Hoysala operations in Bengaluru and its strategic placement, and ensure the modalities are in place,” said B. Dayananda, Police Commissioner of Bengaluru.
Mr. Dayananda had recently patrolled Bengaluru to improve the Hoysala service and its functioning .
The then Bengaluru Police commissioner Praveen Sood, who is now Director, CBI, started efforts to bring down the response time to below 15 minutes. “Hoysalas are meant for emergencies. They should reach the spot at the earliest,” he had said.
Gradually coming down
Subsequently, the response time was brought down to 13 minutes, and then 11 minutes on an average. Following continued efforts, Mr. Dayananda has brought the response time down to 7.15 minutes.
It was all about selecting strategic locations and geo-positioning of the Hoysalas. The coordination of the control room staff also played a vital role in monitoring and guiding Hoysala vehicles to reach the required spot on time.
Bengaluru has 241 Hoysalas with 2 to 3 vehicles in each police station limit. These vehicles are stationed at strategical locations. They not only act as mobile stations, but also first responders.
The Hoysala service was started in 1998 to provide quick response to distress calls. The response time improved with the help of technological advancements, giving tough competition to patrolling vehicles in developed countries.
DCP (South East) C.K. Baba said, “Going by the response time, the Bengaluru police is much better than their counterparts in Singapore and other developing countries.”
However, senior police officers insist that Hoysala staff still need training to attend to SOS calls.
“Even though they reach the spot on time, some crucial minutes are wasted in planning and execution. An updated SOS manual should be in place. Planning and execution after accessing the situation needs improvement,” explained a police officer.
