Police scale up control room, promise to respond to callers in just 6 seconds

Command Centre, the control room of the Bengaluru police, will have 100 telephone lines from Saturday onwards.

The number of phone lines has been increased from 20 to 100. Around 275 personnel, hired on contract basis, will take up to 8,000 calls per day. At present, around 3,000 calls make it to ‘Dial 100’ on any given day.

“Receiving 3000 calls a day but geared up to receive upto 8000 calls a day (sic),” Police Commissioner Praveen Sood tweeted on Friday. The ‘Dial 100’ service has been rechristened ‘Namma 100’ and will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday.

Senior police officers who monitored the trial phase of the service were elated when they found out that they could take a call in less than six seconds. The police commissioner had earlier promised 15 seconds to take a call. “Our Namma-100 fully operational. V promised 2 pick up every call within 15 sec but doing it now within 6 sec (sic),” he tweeted.

‘Namma 100’ aims to be the go-to telephone number for emergency services, much like 911 in the US and 999 in the UK. It will also cater to people seeking help on social media.

The service aims to drastically reduce the time to address a complaint and rush police patrol cars to crime spots. The police control room staff will take just two minutes to understand a complaint and a mere 30 seconds to alert the nearest Hoysala patrol car to reach the spot. The staff will be able to identify the exact location of the caller with enhanced Global Positioning System (GPS) and assisted real-time technology with the help of the telecom department.

The Bengaluru police’s social media wing receives hundreds of complaints every day. To streamline all the complaints, police will categorise them into emergency and non-emergency messages and co-ordinate with Namma 100. Citizens will receive a unique ID once they file a complaint on Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp. “After collecting the necessary details, the case will be sent to the despatcher in the main control room who will forward it to the nearest Hoysala vehicle,” a senior police officer said.

One number for all
There will be an added feature on Namma 100. Dial 100 and press one for police, two for traffic and three for enquiry and appointments, Police Commissioner Praveen Sood said. “Why remember basket of numbers? Dial 100 for Vanitha Sahay Vani, Makkala Sahay Vani & Hiriyara Sahay Vani (sic),” he tweeted.