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Police in Uttar Pradesh’s most populous state, Firozabad, have announced a blockchain-based initiative to track public complaints. Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, announced in a series of tweets on October 12 that the Polygon blockchain protocol is now being used by the Firozabad police in Uttar Pradesh to fight local police corruption and crime.
The “Blockchain Police Complaint” portal will not charge users for filing complaints or grievances. The portal will support both Hindi and English. Complainants can check the status of their case, find out who the assigned officer is and receive notifications about the progress of the complaint. The portal enables victims of crimes to file complaints against local police officers without fear of their complaints being dismissed or manipulated by potentially corrupt officials.
Speaking about the initiative, Nailwal tweeted, “Police File (FIR) on blockchain powered by @0xPolygon. This is very close to my heart. We grow up hearing about so many such cases where victims (mostly rapes) due to some corruption in a local police department are not even able to register complaints or … 1/2 of complaints are manipulated.With an FIR (first information report) going on blockchain, especially if people can get an online platform to file these with their identity, no officer on lower level deny FIR. This can be a game-changer in securing the right to justice.”
The pilot portal, policecomplaintonblockchain.in, takes advantage of the immutability of blockchain technology. This means that complaints cannot be tampered with or deleted by either the police department or the complainant. According to the official website, “Firozabad Public Grievance Management System (FGPMS) is a customized portal of Firozabad Police (Uttar Pradesh Police) for redressal of grievances. Grievances can be filed anywhere and land at concerned stations to which the grievances pertain.”
The website also provides additional information about the portal. The additional information includes the process for submitting complaints, the features and how the authorities will deal with submitted complaints. Each police station in the area has a unique QR code. Users can scan this code to access the form and submit complaints. Ankur Rakhi Sinha, the founder of AirChains, created the portal with the assistance of the police district smart cell. The Smart Cell is a group of personnel within police departments who are equipped and knowledgeable about the latest technology to fight crime. AirChains is a Web3 software development platform.
Nailwal also thanked the police commissioner through his official Twitter handle for going “beyond the call of duty” to implement and innovate with technology to ensure fair justice.
The author is the founder of yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash
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