Poor response from police helpline a major deterrent in fighting crime

Gurugram: Among the major announcements made by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday to curb the rising crimes of women in the state was to strengthen the police helpline number.

The problem of poor services of the police helpline number has been felt for long in Gurugram. The problem has affected not only women who get targeted by criminals, but also the accident victims.

Slow response and rude behaviour by the call attendants are the major complaints that are highlighted daily.

In August last year, the issue of the police helpline being redundant during of major crime was realised after two major incidents of crime against women came to light.

These involved stalking of a woman professional and a woman being forced into an SUV and driven to a distance of six kilometres. In both cases, complainants highlighted how they were unable to get through to the police when they dialled the helpline number.

Phone lines being continuously found engaged, lack of understating by police personnel who attends the call and slow response by the officials to respond to emergencies are some major complaints.

While the police also have an alternate number of 0124-2221601 and women police helpline number of 1091, lack of awareness among citizens of these numbers results in them not being used widely by citizens.

Despite intervention from senior police officers, including the Police Commissioner, several issues plague the number.

Sources in Gurugram Police said there is direct involvement of senior officers to improve the services and efforts are being made to increase manpower.

"Over 1,000 calls are received by our officials, that include genuine as well as fake ones. Despite challenges, we make sure that we attend each call. We are planning to increase the manpower so that we can more efficiently attend the calls," said a senior official from Gurugram police.