Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah flagged off 51 pink Hoysala patrol vehicles in Bengaluru and launched a women's safety app S-Guard. This addition to the number of patrolling cars will ensure safety of women, children and senior citizens.
51 new PINK HOYSALAS to support SURAKSHA APP were flagged off by the hon'ble @CMofKarnataka . This city is safe, it always will be! pic.twitter.com/yL2RJeE6dD
— BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) April 10, 2017
The pink Hoysala will be patrolling busy areas of the city's schools, colleges, shrines, malls, shopping complexes, markets, garment factories, railway and bus stations.
Denizens Speak
"They should definitely focus on places like Brigade Road which are frequented by the youth and has witnessed mass molestations on the New Year's eve," Pallabi Samaddar, a student of St. Joseph's College told International Business Times, India.
Another Bengalurean, Sucharita Lahiri, an employee of CGI said, "This is indeed a good step by Bangalore, as patrolling is needed especially at night time when roads are completely deserted."
A few also took to Twitter to question whether the pink Hoysala will be helping out only women in distress.
@CPBlr @TVMohandasPai Isn't a common squad not be a better option? Will the pink Hoysala not help a man in distress even if it is the nearest? And vice versa?
— Rajgopalnb (@rajgopalnb) April 10, 2017
Others feel that Bengaluru traffic management calls for more urgency than pink Hoysalas.
Bangalore is talking about pink hoysala patrols for women.first they should manage traffic which has not been managed at all.
— Sangita Dasgupta (@SangitaDasgupt6) April 10, 2017
The S-Guard app
Many have already downloaded the app. "Even before its launch, the app has been downloaded by at least 6,000 Bengalureans, and we expect at least 50,000 denizens to download the app in the near future," Praveen Sood, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, told a local newspaper, Deccan Herald.
How the app works
Download SURAKSHA App... for assistance in distress. pic.twitter.com/PIUgfLP5EE
— Praveen Sood IPS (@CPBlr) April 10, 2017
A registered user on sensing danger will have to fire the app up and can send an alert by simply shaking the phone twice. As soon as the alert is activated, the current location and the route, from the time of activation of the app, are sent to the emergency contact number registered with the app and the control room. From this moment, the location is tracked and viewed real-time with the app recording video in secrecy as soon as the alert is raised.
As soon as the alert is raised, the control centre is notified, police personnel on duty will first call the user and then inform police. "The technology used in the app is exactly what is used in a drone. The key five features are securing voice, data text; identification of threat, use of intelligent sensors, data and video analysis and accurate forensics," said Tobby Simon, founder and chairman of Synergia, the company which developed the app.
