App to report crime to cops launched

App to report crime to cops launched TIMES NEWS NETWORK  Jaipur: The handy mobile phone application IWatch beta was officially launched by chief minister Ashok Gehlot at the inaugural day of the egovernance conference at Birla Auditorium in the city on Monday. The officials at the police control room and other police stations are also being trained to get acquainted with the software, especially how and when they have to respond. Now, with the official launch, the application could be used in case of emergency by many users and the information relating to various aspects of the case like domestic help, tenants etc would directly reach police stations by following simple steps on the cell phone.      It may be recalled that TOI on January, 23, 2013 had first talked about the application in the story ‘Seen a crime? Raj cops have an app for you’.      Sharat Kaviraj, SP, state crime records bureau, who was instrumental in developing the app IWatch Beta, told TOI, “It is available for Android phones at the Google play store. Users will have to download an 829-kb file which will be visible on the phone’s home screen. With this application, which is first of its kind in the country, the users can directly upload the information regarding their tenants and domestic help for police verification.” Kaviraj added that it is now an official application which will help the users in getting a proper police response.      “Till date more than 1,000 people have downloaded this application. From now onwards, anybody who will seek police assistance through this application will get a proper response,” he added.      “The application also has an option to alert police. Whenever the user finds any untoward thing happening at his house and is not able to call up the police, he can directly press ‘alert’ button from the mobile. It will send an SMS to the police control room and officers on duty with the exact address and phone number of the user. Thereafter, they will try to contact the user and if he does not respond, a police team would be sent to the address on a priority basis,” Kaviraj added.      B L Soni, commissioner of police, said, “It is a very useful application and we will ensure our men get accustomed with the new system as soon as possible. There is some groundwork that is needed to make sure the system works as per the plan.”