Indian police to send texts to fight terror
Posted by Patrick on January 7, 2009
We’ve written a few times about the police’s use of text messages to help them in the fight against crime (for example in Washington DC, or to stop cocaine users). Well now police in Hyderbad, India have joined in and will be sending text messages to people asking them to be on their guard for suspicious packages or people.
To help with the initiative the networks in India have agreed to send the messages for free. An example of the messages to be sent is: “Found an abandoned vehicle in a busy place for quite some time? There may be dangerous objects in it. Break your silence. Contact nearest policeman or dial 100 or send an SMS to 9010100100.”
And why are they using SMS, well: “SMS has tremendous reach. With people now having cell phones even when they are on the move, you don’t need a TV or a radio to receive an anti-terror alert.”
You can read more about the story here.
While we obviously support the initiative, as a recent episode of the BBC sitcom Outnumbered showed, you have to be a little bit careful asking the public to be aware of suspicious looking people.
