Service to be launched on Friday

The city police are embracing technology to connect with the public and curb traffic violations in the city.

The police are reaching out to the public and enlisting their help to detect traffic rule violators. People can take pictures or videos of traffic violations in the city limits and send them to the city police through mobile phone messaging application WhatsApp. The new service will be launched on Friday.

The public could send photos or videos of the incidents happening within the Kochi city police limits and send it through WhatsApp to 7559899100. They should also include the place and time of occurrence. The city police said the information would be conveyed straight to the police control room. The control room would then direct the concerned police officers through the wireless. “We are looking forward to good participation from the public. We will take action immediately as soon as we receive the information,” said city commissioner of police K.G. James.

The identity of the person informing the police about the incident would also be kept confidential while taking action against the offenders. “The informant would not be involved in a police case or any legal action that might arise at a later stage,” said deputy commissioner of police R. Nishanthini in a press release.

The police said the service would be limited to traffic violations in the beginning. People could also report traffic jams, violation of one-way or accidents.

As most mobile phones have cameras, the police hope that the power of a vigilant public could help them bring down the rate of accidents. People have also used the Facebook pages of the city police and the MVD to highlight incidents of traffic rule violations.