Wielding a lathi and holding an outdated .303 rifle is the conventional image of the police force and it will soon become a thing of the past, with the city police gearing up to go in for non-lethal weapons for effective dispersal of unruly mobs.
The modern weaponry will be of immense help in dispersing violent mobs without loss of lives or causing injury, says City Police Commissioner Amaresh Pujari.
The city police are working on a proposal to procure laser guns and Taser guns that will give a jerk to a member of an unlawful assembly and make them move away without causing injury or claiming life.
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As far as gadgets are concerned, in addition to the full-fledged investigation kits given to the personnel, the city police are also planning to go in for hand-held devices for lifting finger prints from the scene of crime and for matching them with the finger print data of offenders available with the police.
Even when a person is intercepted on suspicion at odd hours, their finger prints could be captured by the hand held device and it could be immediately cross verified and matched with the data available with the police records to see whether there was any positive matching with that of the finger prints of the offenders.
These hand-held devices will be in addition to those proposed for traffic sergeants for enforcement of traffic rules.
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The integration of these devices with the server in the police office, which also is networked with the data base of the Transport Department, will help in tracing the details of the vehicle owner instantly.
The registration number captured by the camera and verification of the same with the chassis number will help in instantly identifying a stolen vehicle.
The City Police are planning to go in for intensive use of Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs). On the communication front, Mr. Pujari says there are plans for a Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) Very High Frequency radio (VHR) used by the most modern police forces across the world.
In addition to voice and data, TETRA system will help in integrating the communication mode with Global Positioning System enabling location indication.
The manual handling of calls in the police control room will be converted into an automatic system.
It will help in locating a caller and getting their details as the system will be integrated with the data base of the telecom service providers.
It will have the call logs and also enable locating the nearest motor cycle squad or mobile patrol to ensure instant and swift reaction.
Mr. Pujari says the State Police is all set to roll out soon the Crimes and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS).
This system is a project initiated across the nation with part Union Government funding to the tune of Rs.2,000 crore.
This is also an integral part of the State's e-governance initiative. Police stations will be first computerised and then networked with the respective district police and the State police headquarters.
This will be a step towards networking all police establishments across the country.
Mr. Pujari explains that this will help in sharing of data and intelligence inputs on a real time basis.
The system can generate alerts to police stations in the event of any breakthrough in a case pertaining to a particular district or State.