Sandeep Salunke
Inspector General of Police (Technical Services)
Government of Uttar Pradesh
The Technical Services Directorate has been founded for taking all the necessary steps for the modernisation of police forces in Uttar Pradesh. Please give us an overview of the work that is being done through the department.
The Technical Services Directorate comprises of Police Motor Transport Workshops, Police Computer Centre and Forensic Science Laboratories, Fingerprint bureau and State Crime Record Bureau. The entire range of technological services that are needed by these five key departments of police is being provided by the Technical Services Directorate.
The Founded in 1988, the Technical Services Directorate has made substantial progress in modernisation and systematisation of units under its supervision. Among other things, the Department is also responsible for the development and maintenance of the Uttar Pradesh police website – http://uppolice.gov.in. This is a very different kind of police website, in the sense that it provides a whole range of services and information to the people. The website has many links, every link relates to some part of the organisation. Hosted on a well secure environment of NIC UP web server, the Uttar Pradesh Police website works as a police public interface, it allows any grieved person to send his complaints through email.
The email can be sent directly to the concerned official or to the DIG complaint cell of DGP UP. Citizens can also go to the Press Room section and find the reports of any incident that have been published in the media. The information of various police units its working, address, telephone numbers, information of new events, etc., is available on the portal. All the departments and wings of the Uttar Pradesh Police can upload their relevant information directly on the portal. The future initiatives include many more information and activities online along with recruitment applications, tender applications, FIR progress reports, etc.
CCTNS: Benefits to Citizens
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There is also the initiative of mapping all the police stations in UP on the GIS platform. How does this system work?
Today most people have access to smartphones, so the idea behind this project is to enable people to reach the nearest police station, in case of any need, by using the Maps feature in their smartphone. All the police stations in Uttar Pradesh, even those located in remote areas, have been placed on the GIS platform. On the home page of the Uttar Pradesh police website, you will find a feature – “Locate Your Police Station.” It has two drop down lists to help you select the district and the police station is in your vicinity. Once you have selected your police station, you will be taken to a new page where exact route to the police station is given. This feature can help a person, who is new to any area; locate a police station directly and quickly. You also get the information regarding the police station in charge, his phone number and other details, so that you can also contact them through phone and summon help, if necessary.
You are also using technology to manage the large number of people who are employed in Uttar Pradesh Police.
Another area where we are using technology in a big way has to do with human resource management. The State of Uttar Pradesh is home to a huge force of more than 2.5 lakhs. We have given a unique number to each member of the force. The moment any person joins the force, they get a unique number. This unique number is linked to their entire data and it continues to be with them for as long as they are in service. Linked to the unique number is an electronic file on which every single piece of information concerning the police official is uploaded on a continuous basis. This is very helpful in man power management and in taking other important decisions like postings of policemen. We have had inquiries from some neighbouring states who want to replicate the system in their own states. The fact is that now Uttar Pradesh Police is now on the forefront of using new technologies to bring improvement to all areas of its operations.
You have also started a Heinous Crime Monitoring system, which is completely online. Please tell us about it.
The Heinous Crime Monitoring System (HCMS) is the new software that can be accessed through the Uttar Pradesh Police website for online supervision of probe into cases of heinous crimes as well as to analyse the competency of Investigating Officer (IO) in the state. Developed by Uttar Pradesh Development Systems Corporation Limited (UPDESCO), the software called Heinous Crime Monitoring System, stores the details of the investigations of all cases that carry punishment of more than 7 years, like murder and rape. It was old practice that the officers took all heinous cases as ‘Special Report’ (SR) case and made a separate register for it.
The investigation into these SR cases were regularly supervised by respective circle officers, additional SPs and even by district police chiefs so necessary guidelines could be given from time to time to the Investigating Officer (IO) for proper and fair probe. The HCMS software not only helps the SPs in districts, DIGs in ranges and IGs in zones, but also the officers sitting in DGP headquarters where earlier there used to be no such record about the progress of cases in distant districts. Instead of calling the SPs, the officers sitting in DGP office can directly see the progress of any case. This also helps in effective redressal of complaints being received in the DGP office about the investigation process.
Who is allowed to access the HCMS software?
The software can be accessed by the SPs, DIGs and IGs and officers in DGP headquarters who have been given the user name and passwords, either through the web address (URL) or the website of UP police, on any internet connection. The information in the software is updated from the offices of all the SPs using the files of special cases maintained there for all the heinous cases in the district. The SPs’ offices update all the significant details of the case like names of accused persons, name of the complainant, sections under which case has been lodged and gist of the incident. They also update the progress in the case diary like when police visited the scene of crime, when were the statements of the accused or witnesses recorded along with the gist of their statements. We can track all the aspects of the investigation. If there is any delay in conducting the medical examination of the victim, the officers can detect that. We have the data for the cases lodged after March 16, 2012 and currently the software helps in monitoring more than 4,000 murder cases and more than 1,300 rape cases.
How do you see the progress of the CCTNS project in Uttar Pradesh?
Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) aims to connect 15000 Police Stations and Higher offices across India and facilitate collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, transfer and sharing of data and information at the police station and between the police station and the State Headquarters and the Central Police Organizations. In Uttar Pradesh we have completed the Phase I of the project, and currently we are at the Phase II.
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