Online dossier of criminals to be provided to cops

The Uttar Pradesh Police are set to launch a first of its kind dial-FIR scheme in the country where a common man can register regular crimes without going to a police station even as it is preparing an online photographic dossier of criminals that will be provided to policemen on 22,000 new i-pads.

Besides this, the Uttar Pradesh Police is also expanding the counter-terror combat and response grid in the State by training over 100 fresh commandos in special skills including a maiden batch of women personnel, Director General of Police (DGP) O. P. Singh told PTI in an interview here.

The aim is to enhance the strength of the ATS both qualitatively and quantitatively, he said.

“We are soon going to start an e-FIR or dial-FIR scheme in the state. It is the FIR (first information report) that sets the law into motion and unless you register a police case your investigation does not start. We thought how could we change this and then it was seen that we were getting almost 20,000 events every day over UP 100 (police emergency number) on call.

“Everything that is reported to U.P. 100 relates to certain categories of crime that includes cases like those of vehicle theft. Now, for such crimes, one can dial the emergency number and file an FIR, a call-based FIR. This will be like a regular FIR, under similar sections of IPC, and people need not come to the police station to get a case registered. We are the pioneer state to do this,” the DGP told the news agency.

Pilot project successful

A two-month pilot project conducted on it in Ghaziabad has been found to be successful, he said. This will be coupled with another soon-to-be launched citizen-centric service over new mobile apps (applications).

All the small paper application-based things like getting domestic help verification, lost and found complaint, obtaining permission for taking out a procession, getting character certificate from police...a total of 22 domains of police permissions can be obtained from home online, without the citizen coming to the police station, he said.

To combat crime, an online dossier of criminals in the state has also been prepared, Mr. Singh added.

“The investigating officers in various districts of the state will be given 22,000 new i-pads soon on which we have fed a dossier of over 1-lakh small and big criminals.

“Once they reach a crime spot they will show photos of the probable suspects of the area and other places, based on initial leads. We are contacting the jail department to enrich this data. This database will keep building up and more such smart gadgets will be provided to policemen on ground,” he said.

This dossier would help in solving a case fast as the suspects can be identified quickly, the DGP said.

Singh said U.P. is the only second state to prepare such a localised online criminal database after Punjab.

Talking about special police units like the anti-terror squad (ATS) and special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams, the DGP said their strength will be bolstered with the induction of 118 commandos including a dozen women personnel.

“At a number of prominent and metro cities in the the state like Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Allahabad and Kanpur among others we will be be deploying special police operation teams (SPOTs) to counter any terror-like or sabotage incident,” the DGP said.