Upload photos of drivers, gardeners, cooks on Hawkeye, says Hyderabad police

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police and She Teams are insisting that women who have downloaded the Hawkeye app must upload pictures and contact numbers of co-workers, cabs and residences through the app as a safety measure.

Additional commissioner of police (crimes) and chief of the She Teams Swathi Lakra told this newspaper that the police was doing its best with the available resources, and is now seeking cooperation from women who have the app, to upload photographs and phone numbers of people they come in day-to-day contact with.

“We are insisting that users upload photos and phone numbers of drivers, gardeners, cooks, dhobis, milk-wala etc. This data can be used when investigating theft, snatching and physical abuse cases. We have upgraded the option recently and netizens need to be aware about it,” she said.

She also said that the Hawkeye’s SOS option will not only send an alert to the registered five friends of the user, but also to the nearest patrolling vehicle, police station and command control.”

“Based on GPS tracking, our teams will rush to the spot within a couple of minutes and also contact the victim over the phone. Nearly four lakh people have downloaded the app from Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda Commissionerates," she said.

Cyberabad and Rachakonda police are continuing efforts to register cabs, auto-rickshaws and drivers on their database to provide security for women commuters in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal districts.

Hyderabad traffic DCP A.V. Ranganath said that cab drivers in the city are registering with Cyberabad and Rachakonda police as most of the vehicles ply in the jurisdiction of all the three Commissionerates.

Police statistics suggest that the city has about 1.4 lakh cabs, of which 50,000 are engaged by IT companies and nearly 70,000 are with the private companies Uber and Ola. These cabs are registered with the police and about 20,000 motor cabs are yet to be registered.

Besides the Hawkeye app, the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) has developed Fight Back and She Safe apps for the protection and safety of women techies in the IT corridor.

Rachakonda ‘She’ teams nab 60 harassers in 44 cases
‘She’ teams from Rachakonda on Wednesday arrested 60 eve-teasers in 44 teasing cases, and registered 12 FIRs and 32 petty-crime cases. She teams in-charge and ACP M. Snehitha said 13 of the arrested were minors while a few of the eve-teasers were government servants.

“We have conducted a counselling session for all the 60 men at Rachakonda CP’s camp office in Nagole,” she said. One head constable from CISF here, Babu, was arrested for sending messages to a women constable in CISF, urging her to satisfy his sexual desires. Based on a complaint from the victim, a She team arrested him and registered a case.

Six boys between the age of 22 and 25 from Akuthota Bavi Tanda in Bhongir mandal — were regularly teasing eight college-going girls boarding RTC buses from the same Tanda.

These boys were sprinkling paper pieces on them, pressing their legs, sitting in the complainants’ back seats and tying their chunnies to the seat etc. Based on complaints from the victims, police registered a case under sections 354 (a) and 354 (d) of IPC.