Telangana Police said it is using various technology tools as force multipliers for effective and smart policing to fight crime.
Already a model for other states in the country with its tech-driven initiatives, it said it took several steps during 2020 to utilise emerging technologies.
The police is already using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp and its app Hawk Eye to make its services easily accessible to people. Every police station has Twitter and Facebook handles which can be used by people for redressal of their grievances.
Public access to police services has been improved through various initiatives. As many as 12,42,680 calls were services through dial 100/112 during 2020.
In all, 1,59,915 posts/complaints through social media were attended during the year. These include 74,142 through Facebook, 57,396 through Twitter and 28,377 through WhatsApp. Another 1,15,743 complaints were attended through Hawk Eye mobile app.
According to Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy, the impact of use of various technologies created among offenders a sense of certainty of being caught and punished.
The effective use of technology has also helped the state police to improve emergency response system. The average response time in the state is eight minutes.
The response time in Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates in and around state capital is five minutes while it is 10 minutes in district headquarters and suburbs and 20 minutes in rural areas.
The three police commissionerates in Hyderabad are in the forefront in implementation of technology initiatives. To achieve its goal of one state, one service and one experience for all citizens all times, the police are rolling out technology-based services in rest of the state.
As part of this, six centres of excellence (CoEs) are being set up at each district/commissionerate headquarters – Integrated Command and Control Centre, Cyber Forensic Lab, Video Enhancement Lab, Data Analytics Unit, ocial Media Unit, Hotspot and Root Cause Analysis Unit.
Location-Based Services (LBS) for all dial 100/112 calls are being implemented. Human Resource Management System (HRMS) application being implemented across the state in all units for streamlining the entire police administration.
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are a key component of technology based policing. The police force has so far installed 6.65 lakh cameras across the state, of which 99,095 were installed in 2020. During the year, 4,490 cases were detected through CCTV footage.
The police have the target of installing 13 lakh CCTV cameras – 10 Lakh CCTV cameras in Hyderabad and three lakh in rest of the state.
The police chief said the use of latest technology has also helped in increasing conviction rate from 29.4 per cent in 2019 to 48.5 per cent in 2020. “Death sentence was pronounced in four cases during the year which is a record in the history of not just Telangana but undivided Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
The police detected 300 cases through Finger Print tracing 300. Technology also helped trace 3,100 suspects while criminal history of 22 applicants were traced during passport verification.
Facial recognition app Darpan also helped the police to trace 33 missing persons (19 in Telangana and 14 in other states). According to police, 85 per cent cases of traffic enforcement were dealt with using technology.
The DGP said 14,324 young generation tech savvy police officers have joined the force for improved service delivery.
–IANS