To fight cyberfrauds, cops at all city stations get training

T'puram: As part of a mission to transform all police stations and equip them to effectively probe the rising cybercrimes and to make all officers digital-friendly, the city police have started providing online training classes to all officers at the 21 city stations.
The training programme includes practical instruction in ethical hacking, digital forensics, threat intelligence, incident response strategies, and other advanced cybersecurity measures. It also provides training in IT fundamentals, cloud computing, and cyber laws.
The officers will also be trained in effective ways of cybercrime investigation using modern technologies. One batch comprises two officers from each station and the duration of the training is one week.
"Almost 50% of the total number of officers in the city is covered by now. Since cybercrimes are rising alarmingly, we need more expert hands to probe them effectively. When all officers become experts in cybercrime, we can fight online fraudsters effectively," said city police commissioner G Sparjan Kumar.
He also stated that awareness plays a key role in curbing cybercrimes. "City police have been organising various programmes to make the public aware of the cyberfrauds and how to avoid them."
Earlier, cybercrimes were registered only at cyber police stations, but due to their rising number, top officers directed all station heads to register cases and probe them independently.
"Most of the cybercrimes are spread across various states and they take place digitally. Travelling to all these states for a probe is practically difficult, and in several cases, the accused carry out their operations from other countries as well. We don't have the expertise to probe such cases, but the training will make some difference. The officers who underwent training gained some knowledge on the ways to probe such cases digitally," said a station house officer.
As of now, the officers at the police stations have to seek the help of the cyber wing for probing cybercrimes. Once the training session is over, cybercrimes registered at all police stations can be probed independently and effectively by probe teams there, said the top officer.
Staff shortage at the cyber police station was another reason that forced the city police to equip all stations to probe cybercrimes. There are only five police officers — a DSP and four inspectors — at the cyber station while just four officers in CPO rank are there in the cyber cell to probe thousands of cybercrimes. With the existing strength, the cyber wing is unable to probe even 1% of the total crimes reported.