The state police have launched a facility for the public to reach the police through SMS. The facility, ‘Kerala Police Message Centre’, enables the public to communicate any relevant information to the police by sending SMS to 94979 00000.
The facility, which will function round-the- clock, aims at preventing crimes, terrorist activities, accidents, harassment by anti-social elements, providing immediate assistance on queries related to traffic problems etc.
“However there are certain guidelines to be followed while using the facility,” the police said in a statement here on Friday.
“Messages should be brief and specify the place of occurrence. The SMS can be send in situations when life and property is under immediate threat, if one witnesses or is involved in a crime or accident and there are no police personnel to help, when one notices suspicious persons or objects, at a time when one needs protection from anti-social elements or comes across a criminal who is wanted by the police, when one is held up in traffic jam for a long time, when there is harassment in a public place and when the local police fails to respond during emergencies. But the public should not send hoax, thanks giving messages, greetings or jokes SMS or those lodging complaints against other departments and test SMS”.
Once an SMS is received, it will be forwarded to the officers in the field through a facility called ‘Act Now’. “The response would be through action only and there would be no SMS in reply,” the statement said.