100 trouble spots pointed out by citizens under vigil in Pune

PUNE: A public toilet in the interior parts of Kondhwa remained dimly lit at night and isolated during the day. Local women, who use the facility, had requested the police officials to patrol the area after sending the location using their cellphones.
They cited incidents in which some locals youths had followed them to the public toilet. The Kondhwa police studied the spot and started regular patrolling.

Following a similar public feedback-based approach, the Pune city police have included a new police patrolling facility on their My Safe Pune application.Earlier, they used to patrol vital installations, bus stands, railway stations, crowded places, market places, banks, ATMs kiosks and other critical spots. About three weeks ago, Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta urged people to suggest points of patrolling and why patrolling is required in that particular area. In the last two weeks, people have suggested as many as 300 spots of which 100 have been accepted by the police. This, according to them, will change the course of police patrolling in the city.
Gupta told TOI, “We have floated a WhatsApp number and people are required to visit the spot where they need patrolling and should send their location on the WhatsApp messenger on the given number. They must provide an explanation to the police in two or three lines as to why they need patrolling at the spot.”
After receiving the location from the citizens, a team of crime branch and local police station visit the spot, conduct a study and check the kind of crimes that have taken place in the vicinity. During spot visits, police check if it is really safe for the women to walk or travel, if there are street lights and if lumpen elements harass women pedestrians, or other local residents.
“If the spot visit by the official proves that it requires patrolling as demanded, it is initiated immediately. This effort will also improve our patrolling and presence in the different parts of the city,” Gupta said. It is added to the patrolling list which is geo-tagged. “The application is GPS based and maintains records of the police visits. If no one visits a spot, the application flags it off,” he said.