Detection of crimes, particularly those involving vehicles, is set to get easy with the State police planning to procure hand-held devices that can instantly access updated data of vehicles registered in State.
Equipping the police with real-time data of vehicles was announced by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa recently.
The system to be launched in coordination with the Transport Department would go a long way in helping investigators solve crimes, particularly vehicle thefts, police officials said on Wednesday.
UK practice
Taking the cue from the vehicle tracking-cum-crime detection system practised in the United Kingdom, a Deputy-Inspector General of Police mooted the idea of equipping the police with real-time vehicle data at the IAS/IPS officers’ conference held here last week.
Director-General of Police K. Ramanujam said the hand-held devices would be used to implement the concept.
Non-availability of real-time vehicle data remained a handicap for police engaged in vehicle checks as they would not know the genuineness of registration number/certificate immediately. It would be possible for suspects to get away with a stolen vehicle just by changing the number plate.
“The Transport Department has computerised records of at least 1.6 crore vehicles.
The data includes the history of the vehicle, its current owner, make, colour, engine/chassis number, date of purchase etc. This data gets updated regularly,” a police official said.
Vehicle check
Vehicle checks are an integral part of crime prevention/detection.
Police check vehicles at random across the State and the activity is intense at check-posts along the coastline and State borders.
“Besides the real-time data, police would also have the details of stolen vehicles or those used to commit offences. By entering any one input such as the registration number, owner’s name, engine number etc in the hand-held device, police would instantly access the original records of the vehicle. This makes investigation easy…”
Other State vehicles not to be included
However, the real-time vehicle data would not include other State vehicles plying in Tamil Nadu.
“A large number of vehicles registered in other States are permanently used in Tamil Nadu without any intimation to the Transport Department. One way of overcoming this problem is to make them re-register the vehicle here or create a national real-time vehicle database,” the official. said.
The official also said that with the new facility, vehicle-checks would become more purposeful.
