Once a tourist enters the hotel and provides his/her contact details along with an identity proof to rent a room, the details will be sent to the police via VMS.
Once a tourist enters the hotel and provides his/her contact details along with an identity proof to rent a room, the details will be sent to the police via VMS.
In order to control property crimes in the urban limits and keep a close watch on the movement of inter-state criminals, the city police have reintroduced the Visitor Management System (VMS). VMS was launched two years back but was put on hold due to COVID-19. After a brief void, the city police, led by Police Commissioner Chau. Srikanth has upgraded the web application to an advanced Android application with latest features.
Once a tourist/visitor enters the hotel and provides his/her contact details along with an identity proof for renting a room, the details will be sent to the police through VMS. The police will then check whether the person has any criminal history by matching the details provided through the VMS with the central crime database.
“Many people from different parts of the country come to the city. It is difficult to ascertain who has a criminal history. But on arrival if he checks in at any hotel or lodge, VMS will alert us. Whenever a crime is committed, the data can be checked,” said crime inspector M. Avtharam said.
Last week during September, the city police led by ADCP (Crime) D Gangadharam along with a large number of hoteliers organized an awareness program about VMS. The police have pointed out the advantages of the app in crime detection as well as prevention and sought their support to make Visakhapatnam a peaceful city.
According to the police, in some cases such as a wedding function or event, a person books three or four rooms in a hotel by giving his details. Afterwards people come and stay in the room. Police say this could be taken advantage of by some criminals, who may enter hotels and engage in illegal activities including cricket betting and prostitution. Hence the police have asked hoteliers to ensure that the details of every visitor staying in the room are noted and sent to them. Meanwhile, the police have also given them strict instructions to keep an eye on the minors.
face recognition feature
Central Crime Station (CCS) Inspector Prasad said that in the latest upgrade the city police has made VMS more user-friendly for hoteliers. Meanwhile, a face recognition feature is being developed for the application and will be made available soon. “With this feature, as soon as the photo is uploaded to our search engine, the details will come up, even if it gives false information,” he said.
According to the police, there are around 600 hotels in Visakhapatnam city. Till now, around 500 hotel managements have started using the app. This month the police plan to crack down on hostel managements for using the app.