Odisha police to supply tablets to investigating officers for digital probe

BHUBANESWAR: If the Odisha police have its way, investigating officers (IOs) at crime spots will no more write on paper the details of offences, seizures and arrested persons manually. The state police are planning to supply tablets to the IOs, who will complete the formalities digitally at the crime spot itself.
Currently, the IOs carry registers with them and jot down the nature of crime, articles seized, names of accused, victims and witnesses, and again key in the same information in their office computers upon their return from the crime spots.
“We want to do away with the manual system and make the investigation process digital. Police stations will be given tablets. It will be convenient for the IOs to work and ensure transparency. They need not do the same work twice that takes a lot of time,” director general of police RP Sharma told TOI.
Initially, the police plan to supply the tablets to police stations in Bhubaneswar. Subsequently, the IOs in other police stations across Odisha will be given tablets. The police, however, have not decided on the number of tablets that will be supplied to police stations. Odisha has 619 police stations.
The tablets will be equipped with digital forms and checklists required for compiling details at the crime scene. The proposed initiative will be part of Centre-sponsored Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project. Last year, Sharma advocated paperless work in police stations and asked superintendents of police (SPs) in districts to completely shift from the manual workstyle to the digital operation. A few months ago, the police stations across Odisha started digitizing the FIRs, case diaries and other crime files.
“We have made significant strides in the use of IT during 2018 and embarked on an ambitious road map to make Odisha Police one of the leading states in the use of IT in policing. The state government sanctioned Rs 139 crore to implement the roadmap in five years. Nearly Rs 21 crore was provided in the last fiscal,” Sharma said.
This year, the police plan to make use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and mobile computing to improve analysis of crime data. Artificial intelligence will generate a checklist to help investigating officers to move on the right track of investigation.