BPL Mobile Enables Mumbai Police To Track Drunk Drivers

In an attempt to take up its share of social responsibility for a safer Mumbai, BPL Mobile has teamed up with Hyderabad-based IMImobile to help Mumbai Police track drunk drivers.

Launched in September, the service helps Mumbai Police keep track of drunk drivers, by allowing instant access to their previous records, ensuring repeat offenders do not slip through the net and new offenders are logged on the system from the outset. When the traffic policeman stops a vehicle driver, all he needs to do is SMS the driver’s licence number to a confidential shortcode, to which the cop receives a prompt SMS in return.

In a scenario where the driver is a repeat offender, the SMS reflects details such as an account of the earlier offences while driving, licence and vehicle number, the date and location of the offence/ s, and the type of offence he/she was booked for. The police can then instantly update his record and also slap a suitable fine or file a case on him.

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If the database reflects no previous details, the police would book him fresh, add a new record with his/her current information, which will get reflected next time the offender is caught. The service employs an easily accessible mobile database (record) and an interface with ‘add record’ and ‘update record’ functions.

Harish Baijal, deputy commissioner – Traffic, Mumbai Police, said, “With the support from BPL mobile and IMImobile, our officers can now trace previous convictions of drunk driving within a few seconds. This technology has been very beneficial and will help us maintain more discipline on Mumbai’s roads”. He further added, “It is the time of the year when we as a force gear up to ensure that people’s safety is not compromised due to their own or other’s carelessness. Past statistics show that there has always been a sudden rise in the number of convicted cases in this period of time, from around 800 in September-October to more than 1,000 in November and December. With BPL Mobile’s solution, we definitely are equipped to serve citizens with more efficiency.”

BPL Mobile in association with IMI Mobile developed this application especially for Mumbai Police, providing them with an end-to-end solution so as to enable them to access the ‘drinking and driving’ offences’ records speedily, crucially and at the scene of the offence via their mobile phones.

An added benefit of the solution is the fact the system is able to send out SMS alerts on known offenders to the entire police unit, especially useful during busy festival or holiday season. The database is confidential with access given only to top ranking officials. Vishwanath Alluri, IMImobile chairman, founder and CEO, said, “Drinking and driving is a dangerous crime and any help we can provide to our busy police force can only be a good thing. We hope to extend this solution to other parts of the country.”

BPL Mobile is in the process of developing this valuable service further wherein the provision of onsite registration of offences will not be restricted only to ‘drinking and driving’. The service will assist Mumbai Police to take the same action for other traffic- offences like rash driving, jumping signal, lane cutting, no parking, etc.