LAHORE: The Punjab Police department has issued a standing order for a responsible collection, processing, dissemination and removal of ‘criminals’ data stored in the police’s database, with a primary focus on gender-based violence cases across the province, and to check misuse of this sensitive information and save people concerned from unnecessary inconvenience and exploitation.

The order was issued by Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar under the articles 163 and 166 of the Police Order 2002 and the Police Rules 1934, authorising the Punjab police to stop misuse of the data in the criminal record in its manual and computerised databases.

It is a major initiative taken by the Punjab Police aimed at streamlining the system of processing and protecting the criminal data.

An official privy to the development says that the need was felt to come up with this decision when litigations against the Punjab Police increased manifold and burdened the department.

Leakage, misuse of this information to entail major penalty

He says the Lahore High Court has been moved with serious complaints of misuse of people’s names and other personal particulars in the criminal record, creating issues for them in obtaining jobs, getting education and going abroad etc.

He adds the issue was created because of the absence of any centralised forum for removal of complainants’ names from the criminal record of police even after they were discharged or acquitted in the cases and the FIRs had been quashed or prosecution withdrawn.

Similarly, he says, there are many complaints about falsely or mistakenly implicating people in forged FIRs which later created problems for them as it was hard to get clearance certificates, especially required to seek jobs in both public and private sectors, or for traveling abroad etc.

In such a situation, the complainants are left with no option but to move the courts to get relief individually, the official adds.

He says the issue particularly came to the limelight when the traffic police of Lahore and other areas of Punjab made large-scale arrests of underage motorcyclists over minor traffic rule violations, and entered their data in the computerised crime record database, declaring them “criminals”.

A majority of these youngsters were later forced to bribe the local police to get their names removed from the police record, to save their academic and professional careers, opening a new avenue of police corruption.

According to the standing order issued by the police department, the Information Technology (IT) DIG has been appointed the principal staff officer (PSO) to the IGP for all the crime data-related matters.

“The DIG IT shall be the chief data officer and in this capacity he shall be the custodian of the data and servers of the data collected, processed, retained, edited, disseminated and shared by the Punjab police”, reads the SRO (a copy available with Dawn).

The DIG will be assisted by all the staff officers of the IGP in maintaining the integrity of the data and in ensuring that the police data is secured and all protocols with respect to cyber security are integrated into the information systems being used for the purpose.

The DIG IT shall coordinate with the Punjab Information Technology Board and the Punjab Safe Cities Authority on behalf of the IGP in this regard, the order says.

It says the data to be retained by police shall be fully protected according to the international standards and shall comply with the laws/policies related to the cyber security, reads the SRO.

The integrity of the data shall not be compromised and all the data shall be maintained as per the instructions of the IGP, it adds.

The data related to the Crime Record Office (CRO) shall be maintained as per the record of the registered criminal cases and editing, if any, shall be carried out as per the standing order or any court order.

“The data related to the CRO shall be entered and processed under the supervision of the head of the district police”, declares the SRO.

In order to further streamline the data processing, the IGP constituted a verification committee which shall make recommendations to him for the rectification if required.

The capital city police officer (CPO)/regional police officer (RPO) has been made the convener of the committee. It shall also comprise each city police officer (CPO)/district police officer (DPO), senior superintendent of police (SSP)/regional investigation branch, superintendent of police (SP)/legal DSP, in charge CRO of the concerned district and any other co-opted member nominated by the convener.

The verification committee, on receipt of an application or court order related to the data, shall within three days of its receipt convene a meeting and shall after due verification, attestation and authentication submit the case to the IGP office through the DIG IT, the SRO says.

The DIG IT, on receipt of the case, within three days, shall place the case received from the verification committee before the IGP for his approval, according to the SRO.

On receiving IGP’s approval, the rectification or erasure, as case may be, shall be carried out by the DIG IT through his technical staff.

The SRO further states that in order to foster national and international cooperation as per the law and as per the government’s policy, the exchange of data related to the gender-based violence cases and the safety of the children shall be done by the DIG IT in consultation with the DIG legal.

“This part of the standing order shall be read and interpreted to supplement the existing legal framework and shall be followed insofar as it is not inconsistent with the express provision of any law or rule”, reads the order.

In case of a data leak or unauthorised access, the SRO states that the officers/staff dealing with databases shall be punished with a major penalty under the disciplinary regime.

In case of serious breach of information/computer system, the officer/staff may be proceeded against under the criminal law, it adds.

The standing order shall be put to periodic review after every two years to update the instructions as per the latest technological, administrative and legal requirements, the SRO concludes.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2024