Mumbai Police's pro-citizen website awaits rebooting

Mumbai, May 15: A website of the city police, launched with much fanfare two years ago to remain connected with the people, particularly the youth, has been lying unused since December last year.

The website, copconnect.in, was launched in July 2009 by the then Police Commissioner D Sivanandan, who had retired as DGP this year.

With a fresh citrus look and an interactive design, the website carries news, an events calendar and gives police alerts and traffic updates. It also has a section for citizens to write their complaints, grievances and opinions.

After its launch, Sivanandan had blogged a number times, elaborating how nearly 40,000-strong Mumbai Police were working round the clock to ensure safety of the citizens and how well it is prepared to prevent any terror attacks.

After Sivanandan, Sanjeev Dayal, who took charge as Police Commissioner, also blogged on the site noting his opinions and the good work done by his men.

"The last time Dayal blogged was in the first week of December. However, citizens continue to complain about various things they come across in the city or express their opinion on this site, but nobody was there to look into them since December," said a senior police official.

Arup Patnaik, not known as a tech-savvy officer, took charge as city police chief this February. The IPS officer has expressed no interest in continuing the website, where content is hardly updated.

Patnaik could not be contacted, where as Deputy Police Commissioner (Operations) Rajkumar Vhatkar declined to comment on the matter.

PTI