Kartik Kashyap,
Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Goa,
Goa Police has been using ICT tools for delivery of quality services to the citizens in the State and working continuously to improve its IT infrastructure, says Kartik Kashyap, Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Goa, in an interview with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN)
What are the various IT initiatives introduced by Goa Police?
Goa Police is launching mobile applications and web-based applications for police services. We redesigned our website recently and added some unique features for delivering better services to both citizens as well as tourists. The redesigning work was initiated by our own constables and police officials.
The first application is to provide an easy platform to the people for accessing services under various police departments and take services to every corner of Goa. After the web-based application is rolled out, people would be able to get police verification certificates online from the comfort of their home. They would simply need to upload the documents. After verification of documents and personal verification by policemen online, police verification certificate will be sent digitally. Similarly, the web application will give lost certificate for lost items, all digitally.
We are working on providing more and more services online to the people, so that they do not have to run around the departments. Similarly, we would be soon introducing an iWatch application. Through this application, as soon as a person presses the panic button, a 30-second recording would come directly to us.
Given the current scenario, do you think there is a need to switch to mGovernance mode?
In today’s life, mobile is a basic need in everyone’s life and it has good penetration also among the masses. So, it is only desirable that more and more services are shifted on to the mobile devices. There are some unique features of mGovernance, like a person can click and send us pictures from the place of crime, so that we can track down location of that person easily. Keeping this in mind, we are planning to launch an app that would help users file complaints through mobile phones.
How do you keep police personnel updated on the latest ICT tools?
We regularly organise training camps and sessions. Many experts from different parts of the country train our constables as well as senior officials on the use of ICT tools.
What are the unique features of the upcoming Goa police website?
The Goa Police website would have various unique services, like they would have the records of the closest police station or police booth on the website, so as to help tourists and citizens find those. It would also have details of all the services of police as well as the recent initiatives launched by us. We have also introduced a section, called ‘Tips for Tourists’, which would help the tourist to stay safe in Goa.
How do you ensure that your crime data remains secure?
We see to it that all our information is always secure. We keep on regularly doing audits for all our data in the police departments, so that it does not become unsecure. We are also planning to set up a cyber lab in Goa for cyber crime investigations.