September 15, 2008	Monday	Ramazan 14, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 14: It is just a matter of months before the much-needed e-policing project will be in place in the metropolis and police personnel will be seen using computers for the registration of first information reports (FIRs).

With the implementation of this mega-project, citizens of Karachi would not have to visit the much-dreaded police station as the information regarding the status of their complaints or FIRs would be just a click away on the World Wide Web.

Besides, the copy of an initial FIR will also be downloadable through the web by just entering the name of the relevant police station, FIR number and the complainant’s computerized national identity card number.

However, sensitive information pertaining to the investigation of a case such as the particulars of witnesses etc would not be uploaded to the internet, said a senior police official. Such information, he said, would be made completely accessible only to the police officials.

The Capital City Police Officer, Waseem Ahmed, told Dawn that around 65 per cent of the police stations had been provided with the required internet connectivity while work on networking had almost been completed at around 96 police stations across the city. Networking of some police stations in the interior of Sindh had also been finished, he added.

The city police chief hoped that the remaining work would be completed by the end of next month and the entire project of computerisation would be completed by the end of 2008.

He, however, said that keeping in view the sheer magnitude of the project, completion and its subsequent implementation might take a few more months than the stipulated time.

“The total cost of this project is estimated at Rs944 million. For the current financial year, the federal government has released funds to the tune of Rs100 million and the same has been utilized for the procurement of computers and networking. If the amount is fully utilized by the next fiscal, another tranche of Rs200 million will be released by the federal authorities,” said the city police chief. Currently, the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) is maintaining computerized data of FIRs with the help of a dedicated team, which keeps on updating the record of FIRs registered at different police stations across the city.

In the initial phase, infrastructure at police stations has been upgraded, which will serve as a basic unit of the e-policing project. However, the upgrading work at several police stations is still pending.

In order to keep the system functional round-the-clock, all the police stations have been provided with power back-up units or UPS for computers. Interestingly, during visits to various police stations this writer observed that those units were being used by the police personnel during power outages.

Outside elements

Since the provincial information technology department is also a stakeholder in the project, it has also advertised as many as 150 vacancies for the e-policing project. However, induction of outside elements at the nerve centre of the project is a debatable issue and a possible security risk.

“Despite the fact, the role of an IT expert in this project has to be considered until and unless an ASI becomes well-versed with all the technicalities,” said an official associated with the project.

For the purpose, the Karachi police have formed an e-policing directorate and dedicated three floors of the Central Police Office, where development work is in progress.

Rescue 15

The Karachi police also plan to integrate the police helpline 15 call centre into the e-policing directorate to minimize the response time to a distress call.

The directorate will be equipped with a digital map where a caller’s address will be automatically displayed if he or she calls from a landline number. Subsequently, the nearest police mobile will be directed to respond to the call.

Efforts are also being made to identify the location of a person calling through a cellphone; however, it may prove to be an uphill task for the police as at present, access to cellphone data is a cumbersome issue.

In an optimistic tone, CCPO Waseem Ahmed said that once the project of e-policing was completed and the police helpline was integrated into the e-policing directorate, the overall performance of the police would improve and particularly the response time to a distress call would also be minimized.