THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to streamline the functioning of the police beat system and to bring in accountability, the police are mulling introducing ‘tech community policing’ scheme under which the officers on patrol would be connected to a GPRS loop, and their movement would be monitored from the Police Headquarters.
The project is in a conceptual stage and will get into the implementation phase once the required number of tablets are purchased and the network connectivity is ensured. The beat officers will be given the internet enabled tablets thus allowing the central control room to trace their exact location.
The officers can also enter the beat report on a mobile application that will be stored and can be viewed from the control room. The officers attached with the community police scheme (Janamaithri) will also be brought under the ambit of the plan. “The project, once implemented, would radically change the way the police patrolling is being done,” said a senior officer, who is part of the project.
“Now, the final word about a beat is the word of the officer who is part of that. It’s his words that are taken at face value. However, there have been several complaints regarding night patrolling. The new system will flag in case of a discrepancy. For example, when a big crime happens, then only we would get to know about the shortcomings in the beat system. When technology comes into play, then there won’t be any room for error and manipulations. The system will lock on to the location of the patrolling team,” the officer said.
‘24x7 network connectivity an issue’
However, a 24X7 net connectivity would be a tough ask, a section of officers feels.
The Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems (CCTNS), the flagship programme of the Centre meant to digitise documents and interconnect all police stations in the country, is lagging in the state due to lack of connectivity in certain areas.
The works that should be done online is now being done offline due to this issue, and the updating happens when the network connectivity is restored.
The connectivity issues that have crippled CCTNS could also impact the new project, a senior official said.