UP police launch criminal tracking app

Ghaziabad: Uttar Pradesh Police here on Sunday introduced a criminal tracking app which is hoped to offer help, especially to the office going women who commute by auto rickshaws. Launching the app here, Inspector General of Uttar Pradesh Police (Meerut zone) Sujeet Pandey claimed the app is first of its kind in the country. Stating that the app works offline too, Pandey told media its important feature is that it opens a person's criminal record on voice sense. If operated online, the police would be able to access data of over a lakh criminals that would be stored in it later stages. Though it is at present being tried as a pilot project in Ghaziabad, it will be introduced in range and in zone, state and the country soon, Pandey said. It is India's first such app which contains the criminals' information. The app contains data base, collected from District Crime Record Bureau (DCRB), auto survey, vehicle record from transport department and jail. In a demonstration of the app, Pandey called a criminal's name loudly over the device as Deepak. Entire criminal record of about 50 individuals named Deepak was soon visible on the screen. Now if police want to zero in on a particular Deepak, a filter provision is given in the app, the IG demonstrated before the media persons. "Likewise the three-wheelers record which will be boldly written on the rear of the vehicle has also been dumped in the app through which the women passengers could message the details to her family before occupying seat in the auto." "For example, if a woman takes an auto-rickshaw from Vaishali, its unique number would be displayed on the back as V-1. If the woman sends V-1 (on SMS) to her home, the entire details would be displayed on the device through this app. This is very beneficial for the woman passengers," the officer added. Salman Taj Patil, Ghaziabad (City) superintendent of police, demonstrated the operation of the app with the help of software engineer Ishan Sinha at in an auditorium at the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad.