E-Paper
Gumshuda’ app reunites missing persons with families
Within hours, the parents received details about his whereabouts as some cops who had spotted him took him to the police post and uploaded his picture and details into the same app, under the ‘found persons’ category.
When 10-year-old Kartik of Jagraon went missing on July 14, his parents were advised to upload their son’s picture on ‘Gumshuda’, a mobile application developed by the Ludhiana police. Within hours, the parents received details about his whereabouts as some cops who had spotted him took him to the police post and uploaded his picture and details into the same app, under the ‘found persons’ category.
The app, which has a facial recognition feature, was able to connect the two entries and the child was reunited with his parents.
The app, which was launched in February this year, has helped solve several such cases. “So far, the data of about 3,300 persons (missing and found) has been uploaded in the app. The app uses facial recognition to connect databases of missing children or elderly persons. It is also useful in case of unidentified bodies,” said police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal.
Users can search the database with case ID, text search and image search using different filters such as age, gender, date when the person went missing etc. The reports can be easily downloaded in PDF format and shared over different platforms.
He added that on one hand the kin can use the app to upload details of the missing persons, Good Samaritans and cops can use it to report any vulnerable children or persons they find on the street.
Other success stories:
In March, an 80-year-old woman Maya Devi of Ganesh Nagar, Ludhiana, had gone missing. She was traced by a Good Samaritan. The woman was unable to share her name and address. The Good Samaritan reported her as a ‘found person’ and uploaded her photo in the app. The app using the facial recognition and artificial intelligence matched it with a missing report entry of Maya Devi. He contacted Division Number 3 station house officer as mentioned in the profile. The then SHO, inspector Jarnail Singh immediately sent the police team and reunited the woman with her family.
A 26-year-old person with mental disabilities, identified as Maninderjeet Singh of Moga district, who was missing since March 1 was traced by an NGO in Dehlon. The NGO contacted Dehlon SHO inspector Sukhdev Singh, who made arrangements for reuniting Maninderjeet Singh with his fam
