Yup. Where else in India can you go to a shopping mall to file a First Information Report (FIR) and get an FIR filed in 30 mins (including the case interview and filling up forms).
To the delight of Bangaloreans, Bengaluru Police (we are yet to make a transition from being a Bangalorean to Bengalurian) recently opened India's first Remote FIR Center (RFC) at Mantri Shopping Mall, Malleswaram. Why am I excited about this? Well read on.
Last week my friends bike was stolen and the first thing he did was to visit the police station to file a FIR to ensure that police is informed on any possibility of malicious use of his stolen bike. What happened in the police station is not something extraordinary, but a perfectly usual conversation and process. No FIR was filed and my friend was guided in a customer friendly manner to check in all the traffic police stations if his bike had been picked up, as a result of having left behind as a abandoned vehicle or (this is even better) visit the malls in the city and inform the mall parking management to get back to him if they happen to see a bike parked overnight with the said registration number. According to the police, this was a common practice in Bengaluru city for thieves to abandon the bike in the parking lots of the city's malls. Thanks to this valuable advice, the search narrowed down to only 29 malls and 39 traffic police stations spread across 741 square kms. Of course, a report was filed, on a plain A4 sheet paper without any acknowledgement.
If this insult to injury of loosing a bike was not sufficient, Google too predicted a very grim scenario for my friend on the possibilities of filling a FIR in Bengaluru. But within these search pages popped out something we never imagined - an RFC kiosk right in the heart of the city.
This kiosk is technology's best answer to police apathy and corruption in India. Thanks to a renewed government, the kiosk powered by CISCO has been functional since November 2014. What made the experience of filing an FIR at this kiosk even more impressive was my friend did not have some of the prerequisite documents or documents in originals with him and had only photo copies of few of the documents. Yet the FIR was filed and he was guided on which documents he will have to submit to further the case.
The kiosk (which many of the people in the mall thought of as a cash ATM) is manned by trained personnel connected to the central traffic police management centre who guide the filing of the FIR through live interactive video (more like video conferencing with police) . All documents are scanned and the applicant is asked questions relating to the case to build on FIR (unlike earlier scenario where the only reason police asked question's was to find loop holes to get rid of the applicant). The entire process took about 20 minutes after which my friend had e-stamped acknowledgement that his FIR has been filed and will be forwarded to the concerned jurisdiction.
As on today there are on an average 4 FIR's filed at this kiosk. With the simplicity, efficiency and guarantee proposition offered by this kiosk in helping file FIR, this is a must have in absolutely every city jurisdiction in India (and many more in Bengaluru). It also augurs well with the fact that the duty of the police is on the field, not inside the police station wasting their time on piles of paper and processes. Thumbs up to Cisco for providing the technology, Bengaluru Police for acclimatizing to technology and government for visualizing the possibilities made available through use of technology.
To the delight of Bangaloreans, Bengaluru Police (we are yet to make a transition from being a Bangalorean to Bengalurian) recently opened India's first Remote FIR Center (RFC) at Mantri Shopping Mall, Malleswaram. Why am I excited about this? Well read on.
Last week my friends bike was stolen and the first thing he did was to visit the police station to file a FIR to ensure that police is informed on any possibility of malicious use of his stolen bike. What happened in the police station is not something extraordinary, but a perfectly usual conversation and process. No FIR was filed and my friend was guided in a customer friendly manner to check in all the traffic police stations if his bike had been picked up, as a result of having left behind as a abandoned vehicle or (this is even better) visit the malls in the city and inform the mall parking management to get back to him if they happen to see a bike parked overnight with the said registration number. According to the police, this was a common practice in Bengaluru city for thieves to abandon the bike in the parking lots of the city's malls. Thanks to this valuable advice, the search narrowed down to only 29 malls and 39 traffic police stations spread across 741 square kms. Of course, a report was filed, on a plain A4 sheet paper without any acknowledgement.
If this insult to injury of loosing a bike was not sufficient, Google too predicted a very grim scenario for my friend on the possibilities of filling a FIR in Bengaluru. But within these search pages popped out something we never imagined - an RFC kiosk right in the heart of the city.
This kiosk is technology's best answer to police apathy and corruption in India. Thanks to a renewed government, the kiosk powered by CISCO has been functional since November 2014. What made the experience of filing an FIR at this kiosk even more impressive was my friend did not have some of the prerequisite documents or documents in originals with him and had only photo copies of few of the documents. Yet the FIR was filed and he was guided on which documents he will have to submit to further the case.
The kiosk (which many of the people in the mall thought of as a cash ATM) is manned by trained personnel connected to the central traffic police management centre who guide the filing of the FIR through live interactive video (more like video conferencing with police) . All documents are scanned and the applicant is asked questions relating to the case to build on FIR (unlike earlier scenario where the only reason police asked question's was to find loop holes to get rid of the applicant). The entire process took about 20 minutes after which my friend had e-stamped acknowledgement that his FIR has been filed and will be forwarded to the concerned jurisdiction.
As on today there are on an average 4 FIR's filed at this kiosk. With the simplicity, efficiency and guarantee proposition offered by this kiosk in helping file FIR, this is a must have in absolutely every city jurisdiction in India (and many more in Bengaluru). It also augurs well with the fact that the duty of the police is on the field, not inside the police station wasting their time on piles of paper and processes. Thumbs up to Cisco for providing the technology, Bengaluru Police for acclimatizing to technology and government for visualizing the possibilities made available through use of technology.
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