KARACHI: Sindh police have finally handed over the multimillion rupee worth cell phone caller locator system, the technology that had hitherto been in the exclusive use of intelligence agencies, to its Crime Investigation Department which will put it at the disposal of all wings of police department, it emerged on Sunday.

Officials said the CID had been chosen by the top brass to run the system as the department handled the most heinous crimes committed by hardened criminals and militants.

“In fact, Sindh police have acquired two cell phone caller locators, one is for Karachi only which has been handed over to the CID and the other is for the rest of the province.

Police had been using the technology since it was acquired almost a year ago and the recent arrangement has merely channelised the process,” said a police source.

Sindh police had acquired two sets of the system last year and initially the special branch was asked to run it, which also facilitated investigation of cases by other arms of the department, said the source.

“As the name suggests, the caller locator will allow police investigators to spot exact location from where a cell phone call is being made,” said the source.

Sindh police had planned to obtain the system in 2010 but it had to shelve it after opposition by the country’s powerful intelligence apparatus. In line with past practice, police heavily depended on intelligence agencies when they needed to locate cell phone calls, especially those being made in high-profile cases of kidnapping for ransom and extortion.

The demand to equip Karachi police with the latest technology, which had been acquired by Peshawar police more than three years ago, gathered more urgency when Sindh government and business community supported the move to end once and for all police investigators’ oft-repeated excuse that they could not effectively deal with organised gangs in the absence of modern technology.

“The SSP of CID has been appointed as focal person for the entire department who could be approached by any unit of Karachi police with a request for the use of system,” said an official.

“The CID officials have undergone training in the use of the equipment. Whenever they receive a request from any unit or section of the law-enforcement agency, they move with the equipment to the required location to offer the service,” he said.

He said the use of modern technology would quash the excuse often extended by the law-enforcement agency for its failure in certain cases because of lack of such equipment and on the other it would enhance its investigation capability.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2014