Visakhapatnam: The Vizag Police Commissionerate’s plans to prevent burglaries by using 'Locked House Monitoring System' mobile app, has evoked a poor response from Vizagites. Following in the footsteps of police in various towns and cities in Andhra Pradesh, Vizag police have launched the LHMS to prevent burglaries by installing the CCTV cameras at locked houses.
As Vizag has been witnessing a series of burglaries during festivals and summer as most of the houses are locked, city police came up with the LHMS app that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. After downloading the app one can inform cops through the app about their date of travel and return. The registration must be done 24 hours before the resident leaves to ensure that the police can install surveillance cameras which would help monitor the house.
DCP (Crimes) Shemushi Bajpayee said that the police had over 37 advanced CCTV cameras and another 35 in reserve to install in the city. But, a meagre one or two people approached the police and many have failed to utilise the free service. More awareness is needed for people to utilise this system, she added. Burglars have been targeting locked houses in Vizag and are stealing gold, silver, cash and few other valuables. A total of 375 burglaries including 52 day-light burglaries were reported in 2016 and the detection rate dipped by 19 per cent.
“The LHMS was launched to prevent burglaries but, there has been little response from the citizens,” says ACP (Crimes) T. Phalguna Rao. A burglar was arrested in Rayalaseema region by using the LHMS when he was ready to decamp with the booty. Sources in police said that the LHMS was already initiated by the Vizag Rural Police led rural police chief Rahul Dev Sharma earlier this year and it has yielded good results as more people had utilized the service.
