BHUBANESWAR: Crime control and improving the conviction rate is one of the major responsibilities of the police. There are many factors responsible for increasing the conviction rate or decreasing it. Besides the role of the investigation officers, proper legal advice by the experts, producing the complainants and witnesses before the court on time during the trials and to make sure they do not turn hostile, are some of the pivotal factors behind convictions,” said Odisha DGP Dr RP Sharma.
Speaking on the second day Dr Sharma said, specialised units like forensic laboratories, medical experts, physical collection of evidence and its proper analysis, among others, also play an important role for securing convictions.According to the NCRB data, Odisha’s conviction rate in 2016 was 10.4 per cent and it was marginally higher than West Bengal’s 10.1 per cent and Daman and Diu’s 6.2 per cent.
ADG and conference’s secretary Satyajit Mohanty said the State Government has appointed 192 APPs and this would help in increasing the conviction percentage.“Only prosecution will not secure convictions, enhancing the investigating skills of police personnel, who are promoted to the rank of ASIs is also necessary. About 50 per cent sub-inspectors (SIs) get the post after being promoted from constables and ASIs. Therefore, we are mulling to change the ASI cadre rule and promote constables to ASIs on the basis of merit based examinations,” Mohanty said.
Crime Branch ADG Santosh Upadhyay was the mentor of the working group ‘crime control measures and improving rate of conviction’, Director Intelligence Sunil Roy was the mentor of the working group critical incident management (case studies) and SAP IG Sanjeeb Panda was the mentor of the working group deployment and coordination issues in Special Armed Police.