Losing a smart phone, with all private contents and contacts, will no doubt cause people stress. On top of that, having to go to a police station to report its loss or theft, adds to the stress. And, it gets worse when police don’t pay heed to such ‘minor’ cases.
However, this is not the case in UP’s Hapur district. Here, 2012 batch IPS officer Abhishek Verma’s unique initiative of ‘QR Code Scanner’ is making reporting loss of theft of mobile phones easier for the public.
Superintendent of Police Abhishek Verma’s initiative has garnered tremendous response. What he did was get a common QR code installed in all police stations and outposts, where people can go and just scan the QR code to register their complaint without any intervention of police. Acting on such complaints, his police team has recovered more than 160 mobile phones, worth 60 lakhs, till now, and handed these over to their rightful owners.
Indian Masterminds interacted with Mr. Abhishek Verma to know more about this initiative.
QR CODE INITIATIVE
Mobile phones are a lifeline for everyone. Apart from being a mode of communication, it stores our personal data and much more. But, often, mobiles get snatched from people on streets, trains, and other public places, and the victims have to go from table to table just to get their complaint registered.
And there are people who do not even know that after losing their mobile, they can go to the state police website and lodge an FIR online. That all that they have to do is fill up a form available on the website, and their e-FIR gets registered.
However, people in rural areas who are not so tech savvy, this is a difficult task. Apart from this, people from both city and village often complain that police do not take their complaints seriously.
Taking into account all these grievances, Mr. Verma started working on an initiative where police did not have any role in registering mobile theft complaint. Since, making payment through QR code is quite a common practice nowadays, and scanning a QR code is very easy – open the app you want to use and scan, or open the camera and scan – he decided to install a QR code for registering complaints of mobile phone thefts.
“We installed QR codes in all our police stations. Got the QR designed by our cyber cell team and linked it to the UP Police website. Ever since, the police part in lodging an FIR is over. As soon as someone scans the QR code, a Google Form will open. It is available in both Hindi and English,” Mr. Verma said.
If someone loses a phone, he or she can directly go up to the QR code, scan it, and lodge a complaint. If someone cannot go physically, they can get the photo scanned and lodge the complaint sitting at home. Around 5-7 information will have to be filled in the form, including IMEI and mobile number.
This data then gets entered into the centralized data base of the police. And then the police start working on the case. They ask the mobile company for location and get other details from the operators. They also find out details from the mobile number. And, in this way, they continue their investigation till the handset is recovered.
IMMENSELY SUCCESSFUL
This initiative was started in June this year. So far, the police have received about 510 complaints of lost mobiles, out of which, 160 mobiles have been recovered.
While working on many cases, the police recovered mobile phones from other districts also. The success is the result of working in mission mode for the last few months.
ROUTINE PROCEDURE
In places where this QR code facility is not available, people can lodge an e-FIR by visiting their state police website. Apart from this, the Government of India has created a portal for complaints of loss of mobile.
Complaints can be registered by visiting the CEIR portal – https://www.ceir.gov.in/Home/index.jsp
CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) is an initiative by the Department of Telecommunications. As soon as a complaint gets registered by entering the phone details of the complaint filer, the stolen or lost phone will be blocked and all information regarding it will be sent to the concerned police station.
हापुड़ पुलिस ने लौटाई लोगों के चेहरे पर खुशी
— RS News Network (@RSNewsNetwork) September 14, 2023
एक पहल अभियान के तहत लोगों को लौटाए मोबाइल
खोये हुए मोबाईल के लिये जारी किया था क्यू आर कोड
क्यूआर कोड से बरामद हुए 90 मोबाईल #Hapur #up pic.twitter.com/T91doyCcIa
जनपदीय स्वाट टीम द्वारा अथक प्रयास/परिश्रम कर आम जनमानस के गुमशुदा/खोये हुए विभिन्न कम्पनियों के कुल 160 मोबाइल फोन (अनुमानित कीमत लगभग 45 लाख रुपये) बरामद करने के सम्बन्ध में एसपी हापुड़ @vermaabhishek25 महोदय की बाइट..
— HAPUR POLICE (@hapurpolice) September 13, 2023
.@Uppolice pic.twitter.com/PltMdJSg57
