274 complaints received on WhatsApp number in five days; 192 actionable: Pune police
The Pune city police have received 274 complaints in five days since launching a WhatsApp number for women's safety and security. 192 of the complaints have been actionable.
The Pune city police have received 274 complaints within five days of circulating a special WhatsApp number for women’s safety and security on July 10. Out of the 274 complaints received till July 14, 192 have been actionable whereas 82 have been non-actionable.
On July 10, Pune city police commissioner Retesh Kumaar released WhatsApp number 8975953100 especially for women’s safety and security. At the time, he said, “Will be checking messages for feedback/inputs of areas especially regarding women’s safety among other topics to ensure strong focused action.” Kumaar also asked people to continue to dial 112 in case of emergencies.
According to the data shared by the Pune city police, as many as 64 actionable complaints were received on July 11 while as little as 23 actionable complaints were received on July 10. Apart from women’s safety, people also dropped messages related to the Koyta Gang, cybercrime, passport fraud, noise pollution, illegal occupation, traffic jams, patrolling by marshals etc. The highest number of complaints were received related to ‘police station action’ (73); followed by complaints related to traffic (64); noise pollution (28); women and children (25); cybercrime (14); and others (48).
According to the Pune city police, 62% of the messages were related to greetings; 9% to traffic; 8% to police stations; 2% to noise pollution; 2% to beat patrolling; 1% to illegal occupation; and 12% to others, including complaints from Pimpri-Chinchwad and property-related complaints.
A senior official from the Pune city police told Hindustan Times, “This experiment was meant to get information from the people regarding the areas where they actually need policing. Accordingly, we have received responses from the people not only related to women’s safety and security but also general complaints.”
The police said that once the messages are received on the WhatsApp number, they are forwarded to the concerned police stations and officers of the rank of assistant commissioner of police (ACP), deputy commissioner of police (DCP) etc. The concerned police stations then take action and report back to the commissioner’s office with details of the action taken including turnaround time etc. The respective police stations have to place detailed reports of all such actions taken before police commissioner Kumaar at least once a day. Accordingly, Kumaar suggests necessary changes in line of action etc. for better results in future.