Dr. Satyajit Naik, IPS (Student of AMPPP Class 2023)
DIG (SCRB), Bhubaneswar
INTRODUCTION
State police need a strategic approach to IT infrastructure upgradation to build a techno-savvy workforce to deliver citizen services “anytime, anywhere”. With the advent of emerging technology, the challenges of the Police are ever increasing to deal with new crimes and criminals not limited to their jurisdiction but spread across the National and International arena. Police need to think and act wisely to prepare themselves to deal with these emerging challenges through a systematic transformation and capacity building at the organisational level as part of the change management programme.
IMPORTANCE
Govt of India realised the importance of digital policing post 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and conceptualised the mission mode project CCTNS/ICJS. However, the progress is slow due to a lack of collective efforts, constructive feedback and collaboration across all levels. It’s time to focus not only on digital transformation for policing-related service delivery but transforming the entire organisation functioning to a digital platform for the administrative efficiency of the organisation. This will ensure efficient working with transparency, accountability and better management of resources and assets in a centralised manner.
OBJECTIVES
Police are always at receiving end despite working hard on ground with limited resources. Citizens’ expectations from police organisations are very high, being the first point of contact during emergencies or emotional situations. Any delay in service delivery or non-responsiveness leads to grievances against police organisations. The primary objective should be to develop a single window system for administrative functioning and policing service delivery across the organisation.
ANALYSIS
Several new modules/Apps need to be launched and efforts have to be made to customise the various running modules and make them more user-friendly.
- R. Management System: To facilitate complete monitoring of heinous cases registered. The S.R Management System replaced the entire file movement from P.S to the level of CB/HRPC in online mode, with several reports being auto generated.
The following were the notable benefits:
- Several reports will be auto generated from the system, reducing manual work and saving hours for the workforce.
- It is estimated that in a year, more than 3 million papers will be saved, and more than five lakhs Dak which move through the system resulting in considerable savings in handling these papers and instant communication resulting in faster decision-making.
c)Reduce the pendency of cases.
2)Malkhana Module: – The Malkhana module will provide complete mapping of all seized items and their status, which will help maintain the chain of custody and hence improve the conviction rate.
3)In addition to the above modules, various other modules such as Road Accident Module, Sahayata APP, Medico-Legal Opinion System, and Grievance module will help improve the work of Police by leveraging technology.
4)E-Police Station (Virtual PS) – M.V. theft cases in a public place to be registered through this system.
5)Citizen Portal – Through the Citizen Portal, a greater number of services being provided to the citizen.
The transformation of police organisation into digital policing needs a more structural approach due to multiple challenges at the grassroot level. The focus must be on upgrading the existing system to improve the Process, Technology and People related issues to enable seamless work “anytime, anywhere”. Therefore, the methodology to build next generation digital infrastructure should be based on covering two critical functional areas, i.e. Policing for citizen services and Administrative reforms through IT automation.
CHALLENGES
Even if the best state IT system is provided to any organisation, human intervention and involvement are critical for data capturing and generating essential information. Data quality and timely data assimilation are important for investigation and service delivery. Training police personnel and human resource development remains a significant challenge against change management. Funding for developing the IT ecosystem remains a considerable challenge in successfully implementing any policy /project.
POLICY OPTIONS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM
A single window system for police applications to do everything is essential today. Both organisational functioning and policing must be provided across all levels using the same IT infrastructure with adequate security, flexibility and support system for smooth functioning. All the challenges mentioned above may be appropriately tackled to implement the projects effectively. Police should function like other organisations using the single window platform without issues and challenges. This will help migrate the policing or organisation to digital policing in a few years. However, coordinated, collaborative efforts will be needed across the country to fulfil the aspiration of SMART policing through digital transformation.
DISCLAIMER : “The views expressed in this blog/article are personal. Dr Satyajit Naik is a student of the Advanced Management Programme in Public Policy at the Indian School of Business.”