Gurugram: Police launches WhatsApp chatbot to help locate stations

Residents will have to send a “Hi” message to 9599964777 to get the information on the police stations or grievance raising options on traffic issues and violations, damaged roads and advisories in Hindi and English.

Gurugram police have launched a WhatsApp bot to assist residents in knowing the police station jurisdiction, location of cybercrime and women’s police stations, contact numbers of station house officers and details of other helplines, officials said on Friday.

Police commissioner Vikas Arora during the launch of the chatbot. (HT PHOTO)

Residents will have to send a “Hi” message to 9599964777 to get the information on the police stations or grievance raising options on traffic issues and violations, damaged roads and advisories in Hindi and English.

Gurugram police commissioner Vikas Kumar Arora, while launching the service on Friday, said that the facility was a move to bridge the gap between residents and police personnel using digitisation. “Residents were demanding this facility for a long time on which a team led by DCP (west) Karan Goel worked to make it functional. The team will monitor it too. Our aim is to ensure police reach all residents of Gurugram,” Arora said.

Officials said the geo-fencing technique has been used to mark the jurisdiction of all 46 police stations in Gurugram. The chatbot will fetch the location of residents and provide them the contact details of police stations and their respective officers along with the route map.

Officials commonly receive complaints about a victim made to run from one police station to another over the jurisdiction issue for filing a complaint. Police expect to resolve this dispute with the chatbot facility.

DCP Goel said the chatbot will also give details of the jurisdictional traffic inspector and fetch details of all emergency contact details, helplines for north-east residents, women, cybercrime, Narcotics Control Bureau for reporting drug peddling, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, integrated command and control centre of Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, anti-corruption bureau, police and traffic control room and senior citizen.

“The chatbot will also redirect the residents to the national cybercrime portal of the Union ministry of home affairs to file a cyber fraud complaint and on Central Equipment Identity Register for reporting lost phone which helps in its recovery,” Goel said.

Using the bot, residents can upload photos, videos, text for raising grievances on traffic violation, snarls, damaged roads, illegal cuts or any other civic issue which will be forwarded to concerned departments for immediate or necessary action.

“Residents can share general and specific feedbacks on policing or an official or a police station,” the DCP added.