A mobile phone app to help police officers keep tabs on night patrol cops

Bengaluru: To ensure effective night beat patrolling the North East division police have now launched a mobile phone application which can track the personnel who are on night beat.

The app, Geo Beat, was developed by Chikkajala police station inspector Keshav Murthy, under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-East) Girish, along with a private software developer. Girish said that it is a pilot project and has been implemented only at Chikkajala police station. “We are testing the app and from Monday night it is being used by the Chikkajala police officials and constables. We will study its effectiveness and then implement it at all the police stations in North–East division in the coming days,” Girish added.

He said the app will help senior police officers know about the current location of the night beat patrolling team and also provide details on the areas they have covered during their patrol. “This will ensure that the night beat police are on high alert and constantly patrolling. We can also get to know where they stopped and for how long,” Girish said. Another senior police officer said that there was system of e-beat, under which the police were provided with tags which they had to swipe at certain points where there they had installed a tag reading device and this would show that the beat police had visited the area. “But this system has not been working effectively, as there are numerous constraints. Now, the Geo Beat app is being introduced, where software has been installed in a desktop computer and application on Android mobile phones,” the officer added.

“There is a software installed on the desktop computer and an application in the mobile phone. The moment the night beat police start patrolling, official at the station will click on the start button and the patrolling police will switch on their GPS on their mobile phone. This will start tracking them and they cannot switch off the GPS until they get back to the police station. Basically, it helps to keep a tab on the night beat police personnel. This can also be extended to day beat personnel,” the officer elaborated.

If app is successful and gets enough funding, then it can be implemented across all the police stations in the city and the state, he added.