KARACHI – The centralised ’15’ police helpline service at the Central Police Office (CPO) is yet to start functioning properly to respond to distress calls and fight crime, sources told Pakistan Today.
The police helpline has been out of order for quite a while, and whenever someone tries to call 15, a recorded message plays to inform the caller that the number is unlisted and that 1217 (the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited helpline) should be called for further details.
The Sindh Home Department, in collaboration with the Sindh Information Technology Department, had initiated the police helpline project to curb the increasing number of criminal activities and ensure prompt action by police party on crime scenes to protect the lives and properties of the citizens.
However, despite the fact that the building and other infrastructure for the police helpline has been constructed, the new one-five system has not started functioning yet. Presently, the police helpline is a decentralised system that is making the citizens’ life miserable, in addition to the delayed arrival of the police party on the crime scene.
The new system, however, has been designed to do away with this problem and ensure prompt response to the citizens’ complaints. If a citizen were to call the current helpline from somewhere on Tariq Road, his call would get connected to the one-five centre in Nazimabad, from where it would be redirected to the relevant one-five zonal centre, wasting precious time and causing inordinate delay in responding to a distress call.
At present, the officers at the helpline listen to the complaint upon receiving a call and then go to the agent broadcasting room for directing the police vans through wireless. However, when the centralised system is made operational, the operator would locate the position of a nearby mobile van after receiving a distress call and then direct it to attend to the complaint, thus saving a considerable amount of time.
A police mobile takes at least 15 to 30 minutes to reach the crime scene, causing the one-five centres to become almost redundant and more like chat rooms. At the centralised call centres, hoax calls would also be strictly monitored and if operators are found indulging in unnecessary conversations, they would be immediately identified and action taken against them.
Every police mobile van would be equipped with a chip or tracker system that would help locate its current position through a digital city map, like Google Earth, which would be installed at the centralised call centre at the CPO, with the entire system geographic information system-based. More than 100 employees would be trained for the call centre, and the renovation of the building is under way at a swift pace so the centre could start functioning as soon as possible.
One-five was activated by former Sindh inspector general of police Kamal Shah who inaugurated several helplines and provided them with vehicles during his tenure. However, with the passage of time, some mobile vans went off the roads, some of which are being used for security detail, whereas some others have been acquired by various police stations.
