Safer cities: Travel Eye to keep vigilant watch

Police will link app with 11 major bus companies

LAHORE: Acknowledging the utility of the application within a short span of time, the police top brass has decided to expand the scope of Travel Eye, shared Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Zulfiqar Hameed during an exclusive talk with The Express Tribune.

Travel Eye is a software prepared by Lahore Police with the support of the PITB. It is meant to track down the suspected criminals travelling across cities by connecting it with the criminal database of police.

He added that initially it was interlinked with a private bus service. Lahore Police were working to interlink it with 11 other major bus companies. Furthermore, they had a plan to do it with the railways also, he added.

Meanwhile, the decision to work to replicate it in other districts of Punjab had also been taken, he asserted.

Police launches ‘Travel Eye’ to trace suspects

“The decisions have been taken after realisation of its benefits as at least 30 proclaimed offenders have been arrested in one month alone,” he said. “This means one PO per day on average that is an encouraging performance,” he added.

Hameed continued that besides expanding the scope to other districts and travel routes, they had also initiated steps to take the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) into the loop.

He added that during the period they had noted the movement of fourth schedule suspects and some individuals returning from Afghanistan. Such suspects fell in the purview of the CTD.

“If a suspect was in the fourth schedule and had travelled to a place without intimation to the concerned police, it is CTD’s job to take it into account as per law.

“Fourth schedulers are not allowed to travel without informing police according to the law. If such movement was not monitored, the very purpose of the fourth schedule was lost,” he added.

Hameed added that the integration with other districts will amplify the results. In the software, if an entry of a suspect was made, it would pop up and the police would be intimated immediately. In a case a suspect managed to move on from the designated station where the information popped up because of delay in the arrival of the officials concerned, the suspect might be nabbed from his next destination. Same was the case with other districts, he added.

Hameed further said that once the scope was extended successfully a major chunk of the means of travelling would come under the purview of the system.

Moreover, Hotel Eye software was also in place in the district. The software informed police about the stay of suspects at hotels, guest houses etc. It also served as another check of surveillance on anti-social elements, the official added.

To review and proceed further on the development of software, the Lahore Police command has been conducting a series of meetings. A few days back, a meeting had been chaired by CCPO Hameed. It was attended by SSP Investigation Zeeshan Asghar, SSP Admin Captain (retd) Malik Liaqat Ali, SP Security Bilal Zafar and representatives of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB).

In the meeting, the CCPO directed divisional SPs and SHOs to remain aware of the Travel Eye alerts and proceed for immediate action.

Last week, a meeting was chaired by SSP Admin Liaqat Malik on behalf of the CCPO with a team of the PITB. The meeting was also attended by SP Security Bilal Zafar and officers from the Transport Department, Pakistan Railways and PITB.

Police software linked to bus terminal system

In the meeting, the decision to connect bus terminals of various categories to the app in phases was taken.

Vehicles seized through e-post

Meanwhile, the Lahore Police issued weekly reports of action against suspicious vehicles. According to a spokesperson, between February 22 and 29, 259 vehicles were monitored with the help of Safe City cameras while 84 were seized. Of the vehicles, 22 were cleared after excise verification, while six were sent to police stations for further action. During the week, 56 blacklisted vehicles were also seized.

Similarly, 11 stolen vehicles were recovered.

CCPO Hameed directed the Anti-Vehicle Lifting Squad (AVLS) to expedite operations and said that verification of suspicious vehicles should be completed in a timely manner.