- The initiative aims to achieve manipulation-free and immutable filing of police complaints
- It can prove to be a game changer in ensuring transparency in lower police administration
An Indian district with 2.4 million people has shot into the limelight for letting people file their complaints on a Polygon-powered online complaint registration portal. The idea is to ensure the complaints are filed without any manipulation by police officials and once the complaints are filed, they remain forever immune to any manipulation.
Firozabad where this novel initiative has been launched on a pilot basis lies about 40 km from Agra where the famous Taj Mahal stands in the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh.
“Using emerging technologies like Blockchain, a pilot portal, policecomplaintonblockchain.in, has been launched which is free of cost, dedicated to the city… The benefit of using Blockchain is that the complaints registered on it can’t be tampered with as data recorded is immutable and transparent,” Firozabad’s Senior Superintendent of Police Ashish Tiwari, said in a tweet last week.
To create the blockchain-based online complaint registration portal, developers used Polygon’s modular blockchain solutions. Polygon’s CEO Sandeep Nailwal said this project is close to his heart. In a series of tweets, he said, “This is very close to my heart… With an FIR (first information report) going on the blockchain, specifically, if people can get an online platform to file these with their identity, no lower-level officers can deny the FIR. This could be a game-changer in ensuring right to justice.”
Given the huge number of complaints and a mammoth police department working under various constraints, inefficiency and corruption at the lower levels of the Indian police department are endemic. In this context, the latest initiative by the Firozabad Police is considered significant.
