BuddyCop: Why Pune Police should NOT have a mobile app?
Recently Pune Police released a mobile app called “BuddyCop”.
Why? Because every one else is doing it.
Releasing mobile apps is a new fad. Especially after Modi ji came to power and started releasing mobile apps left, right and center. Everyone else in the government started following the suit. However they do not realize that releasing a mobile app is just a start of a headache.
Who is going to maintain and update it? Software, like fish starts stinking in no time if not well maintained.
Most importantly, the police department instead of wasting money on such things should focus on improving the 100 phone number service. Over the past year, I had to call the 100 number couple of times. Each time I either got no reply or a busy tone.
The following should be done to modernize it:
- 100 number should be monitored call-center-style with multiple lines. Imagine getting a busy tone when someone is trying to attack you.
- People receiving calls should be given special training to talk to people in panic and distress.
- The call monitoring system should use latest technology. E.g.- The number and GPS location of caller should be available without having to give the address/location. This is how US 911 works. I had the misfortune to call 911 once and the cop arrived on the spot without me giving any directions.
Why mobile app will NOT work?
- Very less people will actually install it.
- Poor quality: In all probability it will be outsourced to some low quality government vendor who will develop something for the sake of money.
- Source code wont be made open source because they want to expose their poor code quality.
- Android and iOS would have made new updates and the app will stop working. The company that developed would have moved on to the next project, new police commissioner would come, etc, etc.
- Within a few months, no one will know there was such a app.
- Tax payer money went down the drain.
- If you still need it, merge it with PuneConnect app (another app that should not be present in the first place). At least, it will it more weightage.
In short, stay away from the fad. Do the basic things right first.
Finally, if you HAVE to do it, then I suggest you do the following:
- Approach good colleges like COEP, PICT, VIT, etc.
- Give it as a student project to some group and get it done for free.
- Release the source code on Github as “Open Source” so that anyone else can fix bugs and help you maintain. E.g. if Nashik police or any other city in the country wants an app, they can use it for free. They can add a couple of features which you can use for free. This way collaboratively you will have a much better and feature rich app than each city developing in a closed environment.
This way you get it done with zero cost and let the students and Pune community contribute to your efforts.
