Through the Hawk Eye App, Hyderabad City Police empowers members of the public to become citizen police

Digital Empowerment Foundation in conversation with K. Srinath Reddy, Inspector of Police, IT Cell, Hyderabad City Police

What was the motivation behind starting the initiative ?

The initiative was started to motivate every citizen to report against any violation which might have been overlooked earlier. Many happenings might not lead to major untoward, if not attended or resolved however might lead to the unfortunate.

Hawk Eye app fills the gap between the citizen who reports and the cop who acts. Facilitating the citizen to report the happenings to the police, then and there which initiates a prompt response from the police who are intended to act.

It’s not always that, a victim only should report about a happening.  Every responsible citizen can report about the happenings. The app lets you upload pictures or videos to keep the scene of offence/ violation intact and undisturbed. It also has an emergency alert, SOS- Save our Souls to reach reach out to the victim in case of an emergency wherein the whereabouts are not known.

What were the challenges you came across?

Creating awareness in public as this is the very first time citizen policing has been implemented at a large scale. Training sessions had to be conducted to educate the staff of the local police station and eco-systems had to framed, information flow system was designed to resolve the local issues in a better way. Also, partnerships were established among Police and other departments such as Electricity, GHMC apart from the Cyberabad Jurisdictional Complaints – Regd.

How are you planning to scale it up?

Hyderabad City Police wants to effectively propagate its mission: Empowering the Public to be Citizen Police – to make the Hyderabad City a safer place to live in. Beside working on its softwares to make the app impeccable, it is also planning to strengthen its outreach strategies and clientele ecosystem.

What does winning SM4E Awards mean to you, and how will you leverage it?

Very delighted, The Social Media for Empowerment Award has motivated us to be responsible towards citizens and to work harder to achieve the goal. This will be a great platform to represent our initiative to the rest of the country, which cumulates our efforts for providing tech savvy applications to the citizens of Hyderabad.

Website: www.hyderabadpolice.gov.in
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hyderabadpolice
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hydcitypolice