Smart policing: Android apps introduced to hike police efficiency

350 devices have been distributed among police officials

LAHORE: Lahore Police’s Operations Wing has introduced a new system to enhance efficiency.

The project, titled Digital Monitoring and Smart Policing System, uses modern IT and enterprise technology tools. Under the plan, Android-based smart phones, loaded with various applications for recording and documenting crime, will replace the traditional pocket notebooks. The social media and an SMS service will be used to interact with citizens.

Police decided to launch the system after a recent study conducted within the Operations Wing. The study had concluded that despite hectic efforts, the department’s public image had not improved.

Operations DIG Haider Ashraf said the system would help police officials record crimes even when they were away from police stations. The data stored in the devices would be uploaded to the main dashboard at an Operations Room, which has been launched in the Model Town police division under SP Mustansar Feroze.

At least 15 dashboards at the Operations Rooms enable police to monitor incoming calls (received on helpline Rescue-15) and respond from the nerve centre.

“For the first time, police dispatches can be controlled from the nerve centre. The incoming calls are automatically delivered to the beat officers concerned,” Ashraf said.

He said that initially 350 devices had been distributed among beat officers. The department has signed a contract with a cellular phone company for the provision of services needed to operate the system. The service charges will be paid on a monthly basis, he said.

“The officers will now be able to spend more time patrolling than on the desk,” the DIG said.

Android phones will help check the location of police officials. “Previously, there was no way to locate them… now they can be monitored on screens at the Operations Room,” he said.

Ashraf said the devices had been geo-tagged. The system would ring an alarm as soon as an officer left his beat without informing his seniors, he said.

The system will allow police officers to monitor raids on the hideouts of proclaimed offenders. Whenever a suspect is arrested, his data will be verified from the Criminal Record Office. Whenever a new suspect is caught, the raiding team will photograph him and save his picture on an app. It will then be saved on the main dashboard.

One of the applications will allow police officials to verify identity of individuals during search operations and snap-checking.

The DIG said the system would reduce incidents of harassment of innocent citizens at pickets.

“The devices will allow police officials to report any incident they come across,” Ashraf said.

He said one of the applications would have a record of stolen cars. “This will prevent seizure of vehicles for merely failing to produce an identity card at a picket.”

One of the applications will provide information about the vehicles stopped and checked previously by police.

The DIG said feedback, received through an SMS service, would enable police to learn about the quality and time of police’s response.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2015.