Smart policing: E-complaint system set for launch in Lahore

Civilian complaint centres to be established at select stations.

LAHORE:

City police will launch a pilot project of the e-complaint management system in a week The Express Tribune has learnt.

The initiative would enable complaint records across the city to be unified. Officials would be able to access the records from any of the force’s eight main offices in Lahore. Separately civilian-staffed complaint centres would also be established at 10 police stations in the Cantt and Model Town divisions by December 20.



Speaking to The Express Tribune Crime Records Office (CRO) SP Omar Riaz Cheema said automated complaint numbers would be generated following the entry of case data. He said it would enable complainants and SPs to review progress on the cases. The system would also send an SMS automatically to complainants and concerned officials following the addition of a complaint to the system. Cheema said all manual complaints registered before and after the launch of the system would be added to the database. He said the system had also been programmed to associate every complaint related to a particular case with only one unique barcode. Cheema said the initiative would also help police determine the veracity of every complaint. He said this would facilitate the quick resolution of cases.

The SP said a message in red letters would appear at cases that have been pending for more than seven days. He said this would make them conspicuous and compel investigation officials to make inquiries regarding the reasons behind their delayed resolution.

Cheema said separate complaint centres staffed by civilians were being established at 10 police stations in the Cantt and Model Town divisions following a directive from IGP Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera. He said the centres would start functioning by December 20. Cheema said a pilot project of the programme would be launched at the South Cantt police station on Tuesday.



He said the initiative had been taken to provide citizens with the opportunity to register complaints in an atmosphere devoid of fear. Model Town SSP Muhammad Baqar Raza welcomed the initiative. He said it would enable police to serve the people better. Raza said the project was only the latest in a series of initiatives taken by the force to win the public’s confidence.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2014.