In spite of all the well-intentioned efforts by New Zealand Police, crime [read aggravated assaults and robberies] against the Indian community – especially those owning and running small businesses such as dairies and liquor stores, have seen a steady rise over the past few years. This prompted Paramdip Singh, a Rotorua-based educator and Indian migrant, to launch an application (app) called Please Help – aimed at crime prevention through technology – in Auckland and Rotorua last year. Now, buoyed by the success of his initiative, and positive feedback he has received, Mr Singh launched the app in Christchurch last week. Available only on the android platform earlier, the app now has an iOS version as well coinciding with its Garden City launch.
Sharing details about the app, Mr Singh said, “As our description in Google Play and Apple’s App Store says, Please Help is a free app which can send distress alert messages to up to 30 pre-chosen contacts along with your GPS location. If the persons you message also have the app on their phones, they will hear an alert sound along with the distress message. They can then alert the authorities, or can quickly come to your aid themselves. Moreover, the app also has a voice recording facility, which is activated as soon as the app’s on button is pressed. While voice recording starts immediately, the alert message to your contacts is sent with a 10-second delay. This buffer is to make sure that you can cancel the sending of the alert message, if the app’s on button was pressed by mistake.”
Moving to other potential uses of the app – apart from crime prevention – the developers argued for the app to be used in case of natural emergencies, as well as in preventing and gathering evidence of family violence. “Another use we are already seeing is some group of care-givers using the app when they go to far-flung areas during the course of their jobs. A distress signal at hand, when they don’t know what they are going to face, is proving handy, as per the feedback we have received,” Mr Singh said.
Finally, highlighting the need for developers to be upfront about data collection and privacy concerns, Mr Singh, who got the app developed in India, added, “With what is happening with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, we have made a conscious decision to not collect any user data through this app. Neither do we spam, nor are there any advertisements bombardment if you use this app. There are absolutely no strings attached, if you use Please Help.”
“It’s just our way of contributing to the community, and telling the wider audiences how the Indian community enriches New Zealand for the better,” he said.