For years, policemen grappled with ways and means to dispose of motorcycles and cars seized during incidents of crime or abandoned without any trace.
But now, thanks to an application designed by the Andhra Pradesh Police -- Property Identification and Networking System (PINS) using Quick Response (QR) code -- identification of the vehicles and restoring them to the owner has become possible.
Director-General of Police N. Sambasiva Rao launched the web-based PINS application at Tenali on Wednesday. Inspector-General of Police, South Coastal Range, N. Sanjay and Superintendent of Police, Guntur Rural, K. Narayan Naik were also present.
Brainchild of DGP“The PINS application, the brainchild of DGP, is the most effective method to dispose of the junk of vehicles and also make the method of restoring the stolen, abandoned vehicles to the owner more transparent. It makes police more accountable to the citizen and also gives legal sanctity to the process of auction. The app is being upgraded with advanced features,” Mr. Sanjay told The Hindu on Wednesday.
The web-based application runs on QR code, a two dimensional black and white barcode which can be decoded by a smartphone or a tablet.
A police officer on seizing a vehicle, either used by a person in a bodily offence cases, or road accident or abandoned category (section 102 CrPC), uploads the photo of vehicle, information in the property identification form on the web site www.apinsappolice.com , generates a QR code and prints the report. The report has data relating to vehicle make, registration number, engine and chasis numbers, details of FIR, date and place of crime etc.
Six copies of QR code stickers are generated. Apart from pasting on the vehicles, the QR codes are also used in registration of FIRs, case diary and in further court proceedings.
The seized vehicles, could either be auctioned or restored to the owner, depending on the nature of crime.
