Why are our police hesitant to utilise technology to improve its processes?
KARACHI: There are at least three lessons that could have been learnt from the unfortunate kidnapping incident of the Sindh chief justice’s son: the need to create a nationwide emergency reporting system, pushing for a complete deweaponisation of 20 million guns in the hands of civilians and the registration of all government vehicles and reforming the existing vehicle registration and checking system.
Sadly, the entire focus of the government machinery and state organs was limited to a person-specific recovery project. There were no lessons learnt and no reforms carried out to improve mechanisms that will prevent such incidents in the future. The state makes heroic efforts when it comes to resolving high-profile cases. Nothing is done, however, to improve the archaic and dysfunctioning policing processes that are reserved for ordinary citizens.
The broad daylight kidnapping that took place on June 20 was discovered by the Sindh Police after an unforgiveable lapse of six hours. The police could have immediately patterned, and, perhaps, prevented this incident, had the victim been carrying a personal tracking system. Many versions of these systems are now available that can be worn on the wrist, kept in the pocket or hung around the neck. Pressing a single button can generate SOS calls to the police and family members. GPS-enabled systems can also perform many additional functions such as geo-fencing, two-way conversation and sending location information.
Why are our police hesitant to utilise technology to improve its processes? An efficient information receiving system could enable the police to respond immediately and prevent many crimes from getting uglier. Needless to say, an emergency information system is just one component of crime control. It is good only if backed up by rapid response police units, who could reach a crime scene in a matter of minutes. Perhaps, we could prevent many incidents like that of the chief justice’s son if we were to focus on processes and not persons.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, July 26th, 2016.
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