Computerised police depts. soon

By G. Anand

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 1.The functioning of the Thiruvananthapuram Rural and City Police is expected to be fully computerised by June, according to official sources.

The first phase of the computerisation programme of the State police mooted by the Director General of Police (DGP), Mr. P. R. Chandran, is being implemented as a pilot project in the capital district by the State Police Computer Cell here.

Police stations in the district will be equipped with computers having dial-up facility. The data at the Station House level will be electronically transferred via telephone lines to server class computers installed at the Rural District and City Police Headquarters. The data from the district headquarters will be uploaded periodically to the server at the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) which will function as the hub of the police computer network.

The SCRB will function as the central repository of data regarding crime and criminals. The SCRB data base will be accessible to police officials at the Station House level once the computer networking is complete.

Senior officials said that a fully networked computer system would mean easy retrieval of data for effective crime detection, easy maintenance of police records and better monitoring of the urban crime scene. It would also mean doing away with the manual system of maintaining forms and registers.

Among the key features of the computer network is the Crime Investigation Management System (CIMS) which will accord a coding structure to all crimes from the time they are reported and till the cases are disposed of by the court. The CIMS will automatically update crime records and generate reports on the modus operandi of criminals for the benefit of law-enforcers.

At the police station level, the system provides for recording of all petitions received directly from the public or routed through superior offices like the Police Headquarters, Women's Commission, etc. Senior officers will be able to effectively monitor the disposal of such petitions in an effective manner.

The Court Process Information System is another feature which will store the details of all directions received from the court for serving, execution and disposal. The system will generate regular reports on non-bailable and court warrants that have not been executed by the police, thereby bringing in more accountability at the police station level.

The network will provide the local police with a database of all vehicles and residents in their respective areas of jurisdiction. The data base will be built up by availing the services of the Census, Election and Motor Vehicles departments. The data base will include details of persons who are in contact with the police as accused, witness, informant or complainant.

The network will provide police officers easy access to the fully computerised State Finger Print Bureau which boasts of more than a lakh of finger prints in its data base. Officials will be able to search for matches of finger prints of unidentified bodies and quickly verify whether suspects, for instance, in theft cases, have any previous criminal history.

Officials sources said that in the second phase, district police offices, range offices, zonal offices, State Crime Records Bureau, Police Headquarters and State Special Branch would be computerised in addition to Circle Offices, Sub Divisional offices and Armed Reserve Camps.

All district servers and those installed at the State Finger Print Bureau, State Crime Records Bureau, Special Branch and police Headquarters will be linked using leased lines. The third and final phase will involve computerisation of Armed Police Battalions, Crime Branch CID and Police Training Academy.

Sources said connectivity with higher bandwidth would cater to future requirements of the police such as transfer of photographs and video-conferencing.

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