GUNTUR: The police department has decided to bring the Locked House Monitoring System (LHMS) under the aegis of the recently-launched e-Pahara surveillance in Guntur. The decision was taken as the department was dissatisfied with the public response it received for the crime-fighting smartphone application for safeguarding of houses when their owners were away.
According to the available data, only 1,313 people in Guntur rural availed the service in the last one year despite 65,615 installing the app. Rural Superintendent of Police SV Rajasekhara Babu, who has since directed the patrolling teams to constantly monitor locked houses in an attempt to check robberies, said: “Despite the police campaigning for the LHMS, the public has not showed much interest in availing our services, which can be done without spending a penny.
As such the Blue Colts and Rakshak teams have been directed to identify locked houses on their own and upload information on the system attached to e-Pahara. Monitoring of locked houses will be done even if the owners do not inform us about their absence.” Introduced in August 2017, the working of the LHMS app is such that the owners can inform about their absence to the police and leave with them their address, phone number and other details.
CCTV cameras will then be installed at their homes and feed from them will be monitored by the police’s command control centre. As many as 50 cameras for the purpose have been issued to police stations in the district. While 18 of them are currently in use, five are inoperative due to technical glitches.
In Bapatla alone, 6,262 persons registered for the service. However, only 315 availed it in the last one year. Earlier this month, DIG KVV Gopala Rao launched 12 e-Pahara Command Control Centres in Guntur district. These individual units are connected to the Integrated Command Control Centre. More than 400 constables have been attached to them.
To curb crime in rural areas
12 e-Pahara Command Control Centres were recently launched by DIG KVV Gopala Rao for rural areas of Guntur district. More than 400 constables have been attached to it