Bengaluru police have set up a separate wing for women, strengthened the helpline and improvised its mobile app ‘BCP Suraksha’ in the wake of the gang rape and murder of a woman veterinarian in Telangana. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said the police Helpline ‘100’ has been strengthened where patrol teams will be sent swiftly to the spot as soon as they get the call. “We have created a separate wing for women in the Central Crime Branch.
Their only work is to see how to enhance the security of women in the city, to impart self-defence training for women, respond in the event of any incident and restrictions for the sale of acid,” he said. The wing will also take “strong action” against those who video-shoot private moments to blackmail people, he added. Soon after making a call to 100, there will be SMSs from police and within nine minutes the ‘Hoysala’ patrol team will reach the spot, he said.
“We have 220 Hoysala vehicles, dedicated to provide security to people. We are working on reducing the response time further,” Rao said. He appealed to people to try the number on an experimental basis to check if the police claims hold good. “I am encouraging people to make calls to 100 to just verify whether our claims are right. We will not treat it as a prank,” Rao told reporters. “We call it Confidence Building Calls against the backdrop of the incident that happened in Hyderabad,” Rao said.
This apart, ‘BCP Suraksha’ mobile application has been improvised where people can upload their information such as name, mobile number and address. There will be another contact number of the nearest relative, who can be alerted. “It is not necessarily for women but for anyone who is in need..,” Rao said. He appealed to people to download the application.
