Project Plus

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Project Plus (Police & Us) is a collaborative effort with Shreya Chakravarty to examine why the relationship between citizens and the police in India is so grave, and maps intervention possibilities through extensive design research to create a more transparent and citizen-friendly policing system.

This video puts together our research and portrays it in a scenario, where a 24 year old man from Tamil Nadu wants to report a stolen bag in Delhi while he's there hunting for a job. The scenario highlights some of the main problems within the policing system in India, police behaviour towards citizens (and why they are generally unwilling to help or do their job properly) and how that affects the citizens. This understanding was necessary in order to gather insights which could then be converted into a design solution.

The concept PoliCiti, aims to empower the citizen with relevant and timely information and help him/her navigate through the unsettling complaint-filing process. The application looks to solve problems through simple and effective approaches at two levels. First, the citizen level, that includes the availability of GPS enabled jurisdiction maps, identification of a Cognizable/Non Cognizable Offence, suggestion of section of the Indian Penal Code applicable and the provision of a feedback mechanism to the Police. The entire process in turn reduces the redundant workload of the Policeman. Second is the community level, which aggregates from an individual’s response to whole communities. Functioning of the Police in particular areas, citizen feedback, measures of corruption, and details of Police Stations are made available for people to help them in making better informed decisions about their lives. PoliCiti looks at the ultimate goal of building a safe and free community through a better policing system in India.