The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is going to hold a tender to launch an instant-call service for police officers. In addition to the free application "My Policies" submitted by Dnipro developers in 2016, several clones will take part in it, which not only took functionality from the original, but also design. One of the clones was announced at Facebook by the head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Donetsk region - Vyacheslav Abroskin.
The original application "My Policia" was created by volunteers on the basis of Noosphere Engineering School in 2016 and is presented in the framework of the BestRoboFest robotics festival. No fee was charged for the creation or use of the software.
The application is a simplified interface with a red button. A long press on the screen sends a signal asking for help on the remote control of the nearest police station. In addition to an emergency call, the application also includes the possibility of assessing the work of a police inspector on a 5-point system, push reports about emergency situations, a map with the nearest police stations and medical facilities, a memo for dealing with police officers, and relevant news about the National Police.
According to the creators of the application, during its existence it was offered for the official use of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in all regions of the country, as a free volunteer product. However, the initiative did not step beyond the Dnipro, where it was successfully implemented in cooperation with the local police. Meanwhile, the application has a clone, which in the eyes of the leadership of the National Police was able to successfully compete with the original in the tender.
Last Thursday, February 16, the head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Donetsk region - Vyacheslav Abroskin posted on his Facebook post, where he presented a noticeably similar application - "Active Citizen".
https://www.facebook.com/Vyacheslav.Abroskin/posts/1686167531675914
Announced by Abroskinom service through the option makes it possible to report an offense and attach photos, send notifications of state of emergency and shelling, pushes urgent messages, and also gives an opportunity to give feedback about the work of a police officer and write down to the reception at the site. In addition to all this, the "Active Citizen" is visibly similar to "My Policies" interface and design. In the announcement of the service Abroskin also mentioned the possible problem of plagiarism: "We do not pretend to be someone else's software products. Our application is developed taking into account the specifics of the ATO zone and the capabilities of our UASC. "
The similarity between the applications was noted also by the co-founder of Noosphere Engineering School Mikhail Ryabokon, who informed himself on Facebook that "plagiarism is the best praise" to the author of the project, the former officer of the Dnepr-1 battalion, Dmitry Podvorchansky.
The question of the need to develop a copy of an existing service was asked at a meeting of bloggers with the government by the scientist-physicist and activist of the educational project Prometheus Anton Senenko. In response, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov confirmed that such an application will be launched within the next 1.5 years along with a new intellectual police system. The system will also include a single police control center and intelligent cameras that take down the entire city and recognize the faces / numbers of the machines.
Also, according to the minister, to launch the service, it will be necessary to hold a tender between three companies from Kiev, Kharkov and Kiev-Mariupol, following which the state will buy out the rights to it. But why buy something that is offered completely free of charge - a question so far open ..