Kerala Police App (Pol-App)

When Kerala Police posed a challenge to the followers of their Facebook page – to help them achieve the target of 1 million likes before January 1, 2019, the page crossed the magic numbers in six days, to beat the Facebook pages of NYPD (New York Police Department) and Australia’s Queensland Police.

If you are the kind who has the clean record of a baby, but still has knees knocking together when you encounter random police checks on the roads, just know that you are in the majority. There is even a term for irrational fear of police – Astynomiaphobia.

But our very own Kerala Police has gone out of their way – developing a fun and friendly FB page with some cool memes, practical info and tongue in cheek interactions with social media fans, enforcing a path breaking Janamaithri Suraksha Project, which aims to effectively bridge the gap between police and public – by encouraging citizens’ active participation to prevent crimes.

So, if you worry about the safety of self or loved ones, download their  Pol-App. Not hoping you would need it, but it would sure be handy to have in your phone in an emergency. The official Kerala Police App (Pol App) is a citizen-centric digital initiative to give the common public easy access to all their services.

The broad categories of services are:

Citizen services
Information on the nearest police station – The app would show you the details of your local police station, Navigation to Jurisdictional Police Station – Based on your location, the app will provide you with the details of the jurisdictional police station and also facilitate navigation to the same, Contacts – Contact details of the officers of Kerala Police, e-FIR – FIRs can be downloaded, Payment Services – Payment can be made to the Treasury for various services rendered by the department, Passport Verification Status – The status of police verification for passports can be obtained and Senior Citizen’s Register – Citizens who would like to avail of Janamaithri Services can register in the App and it will be forwarded to Janamaithri Police)

Women and Child services
Track My Trip -The user can share location with three pre-registered private mobile numbers. In case of any emergency, an SOS call is generated. Fix an appointment with SHO for Women is a women-friendly initiative wherein a women can fix an appointment with SHO of a police station, online.

Citizen safety services
SOS Panic Message (self-explanatory) and Locked House Information – Citizens have the facility to report to their police station, when they are travelling out of station, so that the SHO can alert the beat officers.

Information services
Push Notifications, Social Media Feeds, Traffic Guru, Tourist Guide– Facility to search a destination and to find the Jurisdictional Police Station, Helplines-lists the various help line numbers, Cyber awareness – To create awareness on common mistakes/frauds prevalent in cyber space, Website links -Links of important official websites are provided in this feature.

Report to us
Offence Reporting – Citizens can directly report to the police, certain categories of offences along with photos and description, Report Spam – Cases of fraud calls pertaining to ATM fraud/job opportunities can be reported and the designated authority will mark such fraudulent calls as spam, which will alert other citizens; Information to Police -Public can share information to police through this feature, Report Abandoned Child & Report Abandoned Women – Any child or woman found abandoned in the streets can be reported along with a geo tagged photograph, which will be forwarded to the Women and Child Welfare Control Room; Report Abandoned Senior citizen – Details of abandoned elders can be reported with a photograph, which will be passed on to the senior citizen control room.

You may be afraid to voluntarily involve yourself with the police. The police generally don’t turn up when good things happen. But one thing we have learned about our police force and other essential services during this Corona season is – they are human too and they need pats on the back and fruitful, healthy interactions with the citizens. THIS app will definitely be a positive step towards that.

Rating: 8/10