Welcome initiative: Cops being trained to trace mobiles

168 policemen being trained at police lines.

LAHORE: City police has been training -168 policemen including 84 upper-subordinates and 84 constables- to trace cellular data including SIM and numbers at police lines in Qila Gujjar Singh.

The two-week course has been conceived and designed by Headquarters SP Umer Saeed. SI Nasir Hameed, one of the trainers, told The Express Tribune that the course had been divided into two parts. Hameed said they were first taught the definitions of International Mobile Phone Equipment Identity, International Mobile Subscriber Identity, Location Area Code and Cell ID. He said they were next taught how to track criminals using mobile phones through IMEI, Geo-Tagging and IMSI. Hameed said Intelligence Bureau (IB) Deputy Director Amir Iqbal had also lectured the policemen on the subject.



ASI Khurram, one of the trainees told The Express Tribune that he would use the expertise he had acquired to nab criminals. “The training has equipped me with skills needed to quickly nab criminals,” he said.

ASI Asad Khan said the policemen had been taught state-of-the-art techniques in the programme. He said this would improve the performance of the Investigation Wing at police stations across Lahore.

SP Saeed told The Express Tribune that the first batch of policemen being trained would complete the course in two days. He said the programme would improve their response time and facilitate quicker arrest of criminals. He said the department had to write to the IB and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) earlier to crack mobile data. He said the programme had remedied the problem by equipping policemen with skills needed to decipher cellular data on their own accord.

The SP said mobile tracking cells would also be set up at the offices of divisional SPs city-wide. Saeed said the proliferation of cutting-edge gadgets had made it easier to nab criminals using mobile phone tracking techniques.

Operations DIG Haider Ashraf said the programme would equip the policemen with skills needed to curb crime by harnessing the potential of cellular technology.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2014.