Police commissionerate runs for technology upgrade in the New Year

BHUBANESWAR: Technology upgradation in policing will be the thrust area for the twin city police commissionerate in 2012, said commissioner of police B K Sharma on the sidelines of the fourth foundation day of the commissionerate police system here on Monday.
Police have roped in IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to digitize the citizen-centric benefits at the earliest."In the first phase, we will digitize services like verification of passports and service matter. People need not move around police stations. The service will be just a click away," Sharma said. "We already have the manpower and infrastructure at our office. Our personnel will be trained to handle the matter," he added.
As of now, people have been paying a series of visits to police stations for passport verification and service related matter. While nearly 400 passport verification applications reach police stations on any given day, the applications to verify the characters and antecedents pertaining to employment in various government and private sectors touch nearly 100 on a daily basis. The existing process of verification for both the services takes not less than 20 to 30 days, sources said. "The proposed digitized service will reduce this time," Sharma said.
This apart, police plan to launch a website where common people can upload images and video clippings of accused persons, taken surreptitiously during the commission of crimes in the city. Top cops recently discussed installation of the system in the state capital with some American technocrats.
Installation of close circuit television cameras (CCTV) at vital installations in the city is another ambitious service to be rolled out this year.
Police will also record conversations of police personnel in police vans and control room on very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) gadgets.
CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar, who was the chief guest at the foundation day celebration, lauded the community policing of the police commissionerate. "The community policing service impressed me. There are some points here some other states should follow," Kumar said.
Kumar felicitated senior police officer Dilip Kumar Das as the best territorial ACP of 2011. While inspector Harihar Dora was declared the best inspector, Panu Behera received the award for the best home guard.
Odisha DGP Manmohan Praharaj also praised the police commissionerate for putting up a good show despite several constraints.