BENGALURU : From January to March, the city police recorded over 6.47 lakh calls made to Namma 112. Of this, slightly over 1.5 lakh calls required actionable signals. In the last three months, on almost every day, more than 6,500 calls were made to Namma 112.
The average time recorded for each response by Hoysala, the first responders, has been reduced to 7-9 minutes from 11-15 minutes. However, some police officials opine that an updated SOS manual should be in place. Improvement is needed in planning and execution after assessing the situation to avoid wasting crucial minutes.
March recorded the highest number of calls, with over 2.3 lakh calls made, followed by February, which reported over 2.09 lakh calls, and January, with over 2.04 lakh calls made. The data showed that the highest actionable signals in response to calls were reported in March, with about 39,546 actionable signals taken.
B Dayananda, City Police Commissioner told TNIE, Of these calls, many are enquiry calls. However, every day we get about 1,000-1,200 calls for which Hoysala has to be deployed. These are called Calls for Service (CFS) for which the response time is 7-8 minutes.
Speaking about the progress done over time for Hoysala, the senior officer highlighted that the Hoysala is now equipped with the installation of dashcams. Although the staff had been upgraded with training skills and armed with weapons to handle any eventualities, a few of the officials associated with Hoysala duty termed it as a “challenging task.” The officer-in-charge is usually tasked with the heavy workload and high expectations, he added.
During each 12-hour shift, we encounter some days with more serious cases that require immediate action. While patrolling, we frequently stop at hotspots like pubs, parks, and crowded areas. However, responding to calls from even within a kilometre radius becomes challenging due to heavy traffic congestion within these hotspot areas. Bengaluru has 241 Hoysala with around two to three Hoysala vehicles in each police station’s limits.