‘ICE’ your phone and save yourself in emergency!

‘ICE’ your phone and make sure that the next of your kin are immediately informed in case of an emergency.

Police are launching the ‘ICE’ (In Case of Emergency) campaign encouraging people to store emergency contact numbers in the mobile phone address book under the name ICE. This would enable the first responders, police men or medical officers to immediately alert the victim’s nearest family members during an emergency by simply dialling the number stored as ICE in the mobile phone.

North Zone ADGP N Shanker Reddy has directed IGs and SPs under the zone to popularise the campaign suggesting people to ICE their phone. “When one person is involved in an accident or had a heart attack, the nearby people attending him get hold of his mobile number but don’t know which number to call to inform their near and dear ones. Random search through the phone is not practical. For this reason, one must have one or more telephone numbers stored in mobile phone under the name ‘ICE’. And for more than one contact name, one has to simply store the numbers as ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc,” said North Zone ADGP N Shanker Reddy.


As cell phones are carried by majority of the people, ADGP said, all we need to do is to encourage the general public to store the number of the  person or persons who should be contacted in case of emergency. “It would be a good thing if there is a commonly recognised name for this purpose,” said the letter sent by ADGP to the officers on Saturday.

ADGP Shanker Reddy added that the police would intensify the campaign to encourage the public as well as police personnel. “In the next step, we will write to all mobile phone service providers and continue the campaign through Student Police Cadets and media,” he said.

‘ICE Your Phone’ has been a phenomenal hit especially in Europe, Australia and North America. The idea was conceived by a member of the East Anglia Ambulance Service in UK after the London bomb attacks in 2005.