Until recently, the Delhi police department in India had been enjoying a baffling long streak totally free of complaints. Of course, it’s a lot easier to keep a clean slate when you never check the complaint database in the first place. Because someone lost the password. Eight years ago.
You can imagine the officers who finally opened the portal were more than a little overwhelmed at the 600 complaints waiting for them on the other end. The complaints themselves had all come from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) — India’s anti-corruption agency. When a complaint is filed against a government official — which includes police officers — the CVC will either handle the matter themselves or forward it to the appropriate precinct.
In 2006, the CVC created a portal, allowing them to put the complaints online and so that each department could log in and access as needed. When the CVC realised that they had not had any feedback from the Delhi police department since 2006, they called a couple of officers in only to find out that the 667 complaints were going untouched because the Delhi department couldn’t remember the password.
Finally, after an hour-long training session (presumably to learn how to remember passwords), the cops went back to tackle their very, very long list of grievances with password-in-hand and — we can only hope — a security question. Let’s hope they have an easier time remembering the name of their first pet. [India Express via BBC]
Picture: Shutterstock/Kzenon