Dedicated panic buttons on phones is not a well thought out policy

Dedicated panic buttons on phones is not a well thought out policy...

But it makes good headlines.

I don't think I need to say more, the implications are obvious but in
case they aren't, here are a few issues:

1.Genuine calls to the police will be drowned among thousands of
accidental key presses of the panic button.
2. India lacks a dedicated emergency helpline like 911 in the US, so a
panic button to call the police is useless outside 4 or 5 major metros
which might have some level of computerization and wireless response
with the 112 service.
3. First responders, including the police can take up to 30 minutes to
respond even in crowded urban centers, which is too late to prevent
most  crimes.
4. Depending on friends or relatives for help is a poor choice. Most
ordinary people who aren't teenagers can often go a few hours without
checking the phone for messages. Besides we are not all Bruce Lee to
beat off goons, we can at best help rush the victim to the hospital.
5. Always on GPS will weaken batteries, so most will turn it off. When
the panic button is pressed, acquiring a GPS/Glonass fix can take
between 3-60 minutes depending on when GPS was last used.

I'm sure with 5 minutes of thinking we can all find still more issues.
What would have been nice is a call for proposals from the technology
community instead of what appears to be an off-the-cuff policy
announcement.



Background: http://www.businesstoday.in/sectors/telecom/new-handsets-will-require-mandatory-panic-button/story/231409.html