Delhi Police is planning to release single-touch SOS button app for better emergency response

Dialling 100 during an emergency will soon be a thing of past, with the Delhi Police working on a mobile app that will connect the distressed person with the police in a single touch to ensure quick response. Delhi Police is in the process of bringing an app - likely to be called 100 - which will have an SOS button to be pressed by used in case of an emergency, sources said. “This is one of our biggest projects. 100 number is the go-to solution for everybody. Apart from calls that are related to our work, there are calls that we receive. With the app on their phones, people will not have to dial the three digits and in case of an emergency, they will be able to reach us faster by just pressing a button,” said a senior police officer. The development of the app is at a nascent stage with the modalities being worked out, but it is likely to be started in the new year. One of the other benefits of the app will be that it will help a PCR van locate the exact point from where the caller is standing and that will improve the response time of the police, said the officer. “Through the mobile location, we will be able to gauge the correct position of the caller. Many a time, our PCR van is busy talking to the caller asking about directions, which side of the road they are standing and other things. “But with the app, our vans will be able to reach quicker and the caller, who is already hassled, won’t have to go through the task of giving directions or explaining their position,” the officer added. But the PCR unit of the Delhi Police, which at present handles 27,000 calls a day on an average of which 40 percent are blank calls, is also cautious about the number of hoax alert calls going up with the introduction of the easy to use app. “With the app on their fingertips, there is a chance that people will just press the button and later tell us that they did it by mistake. We will be working on some measures to ensure that that situation doesn’t arise,” he stressed. With the police also working on setting up a separate control room for handling calls on phone number 112, which will be India’s equivalent of 911 of the USA’s all-in-one emergency services, the app, that will be launched as 100 will later be upgraded, sources said. PTI