NEW DELHI:Delhi Police, like many other urban police forces in western countries today, is becoming heavily armed and thoroughly computerised. The real-time analysis and critical response division in Delhi Police is its central processor at Police Control Room (PCR). The central processor eventually will perform “predictive policing”.
The force has recently tied up with Department of Space to get real-time analysis of crime in the national capital. “We have also tied up for developing a mechanism for predictive policing,” Special Commissioner of Police Sundari Nanda told The Sunday Standard. She said that predictive policing is just one tool in this new, technology enhanced and data-fortified era of fighting and preventing crime.
On an average, the PCR receives 25,000 calls per day, out of which around 5,000 calls are actionable. With the help of Department of Space, Delhi Police will record every call through a software specially designed for the purpose, which have the ability to collect, store and analyse crime data and trends. In 2014, the PCR received 84,41,300 calls.
“If at any moment we want to find which areas in the national capital are accident-prone and where snatching can take place in the next hour, the central processor can immediately locate those areas,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police S K Singh. The officer also said it will have the ability to identify crime hotspots.
Calls made to at all other helpline numbers—1291 for children, students and senior citizens, 1093 for people from the northeast and 1091 for incidents related to women—will be incorporated into the central processor.
The data will directly be shared with response time. The average response time to high priority calls is been five to seven minutes. The average response time to medium class has been 10 to 20 minutes.
Officers on patrol will be equipped with maps sprinkled with a dozen or more red boxes indicating high probabilities of criminal activity, which will help in decreasing the response time. The officers will also be equipped with Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices connected to central processor where a database of around two lakh criminals with their photographs will be stored and linked directly to the hand-held equipment.
“It will take a more proactive approach. The law enforcement agencies all over the world are adopting techniques that harness the potential of technology to provide more and better information,” said Singh.
The police is also in process of procuring around 600 hand-held biometric devices that will replace old wireless sets. Almost half of frontline officers will have access to a mobile PDA device, which will cut bureaucracy and time spent in the station.
The devices will give officers on-the-spot access to vital information and will allow them to file reports directly from crime scenes rather than returning to the stations. The PDA devices will be connected to main server at police headquarters, and whenever anyone makes a call to police, it will be converted into digital text along with the location of phone of the victim.
With this technology, police will also be able to identify gangs in specific areas.