Khattar launches e-beat policing in Gurugram, 119 motorcycle riders flagged off

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday launched a fully digitised beat policing system, called the ‘smart e-beat system’, at the commissioner’s office in Gurugram and flagged off 119 motorcycle riders who will keep a tab on urban neighbourhoods round the clock

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday launched a fully digitised beat policing system, called the ‘smart e-beat system’, at the commissioner’s office in Gurugram and flagged off 119 motorcycle riders who will keep a tab on urban neighbourhoods round the clock.

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Speaking on the sidelines of the event, senior police officers said the new system will be centrally monitored and will help improve patrolling to ensure safer neighbourhoods. The riders will monitor 2,056 locations across the city daily, the officers said, adding that the department tied up with a Bangalore-based startup to develop the e-beat system.

Khattar said the smart policing Initiative will be completely digitised and function through an app. “This is an app-based system and the motorcycle policemen would mark their attendance on the app and not physically. Until now, beat policemen used to mark their attendance manually and there was no mechanism to monitor them. But since this is a GIS-based system, it would enable more effective monitoring and the location of each rider can be easily tracked,” he said.

Khattar said the system will cover areas under all 33 police stations in the urban area of Gurugram and as many as 119 motorcycle riders will be deployed in each shift — each motorcycle will have two policemen.

The personnel will have the e-beat application downloaded on their phones and they will make entries in the app regarding their patrolling time, areas and series of events.

“Around 714 policemen will be deployed as riders in three shifts daily. Police have identified 2,056 sensitive locations across the city, which mainly include ATMs, petrol pumps, residences of senior citizens, schools, colleges, religious places, and crime-affected areas, among others. The system will be integrated with the emergency response support system in the future so that apart from emergency rescue vehicles, the rider can also respond to calls on the Dial 112,” Khattar said.

Gurugram police commissioner Kala Ramachandran said they implemented a pilot of this project in east Gurugram and Manesar areas in April this year. “After removing the deficiencies that were noticed in a pilot project, the e-beat policing was extended to south Gurugram and west Gurugram this month. Under the initiative, every rider has to download the e-beat app on her phone. The riders can mark their attendance on this app after reaching the beat area where they have been deployed. The responsibility of checking sensitive places will be on these riders,” she said.

Ramachandran said the data of bad characters and stolen vehicles are two features added in the app so that these riders can be helpful in finding stolen vehicles. “The system will work as a secure, digital, smart and real-time patrolling solution to policing. Senior police officers will also be able to monitor patrolling more effectively. This will increase security of residents and will bring about transparency and accountability,” she said.

“This is a next-generation patrolling application and the dashboard will display how many locations or places the rider has checked, and how many they missed,” the police chief said.