As criminals leave behind a digital trace, the police are solving a majority of the crimes with the help of technology, said City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood on Tuesday.
Stating that new crime-fighting technology is slowly being introduced in the police department, he said, “Now there is more surveillance using CCTV cameras to prevent crime. Passport verification has also become technology-based.”
He was speaking at a workshop titled ‘Bengaluru Next’ organised by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation in association with Mount Carmel College in the city. The aim was to unite all the stakeholders, including citizens and government officials, to “review, restore and redesign” the city.
“Earlier, people used to walk to the nearest police station or call 100 to lodge a complaint. Now, everything is through the social media platform of the city police. As technology has started percolating into our daily lives, it has become easier for the government and public to interact,” he said.
Adding that technology was empowering the public, Mr. Sood explained that he now tweets the instructions he gives to his subordinates. “With this, the public too is aware of the rules. For example, I tweeted about using fresh straws for drunk driving tests. Now, people are refusing to undergo the test if the straw is not new,” he said.
However, the police commissioner feels that there is a lot to be improved. He said the need of the hour is convergence of databases of various departments. This way, a person who has committed a crime or has some dues with government departments cannot leave the country easily, he said.
“It happened between the Traffic and Transport departments in 2008. The traffic police have to just key in the vehicle number to get the details and issue a printed challan. As a result, the number of challans issued annually has shot up from 13 lakh to nearly one crore,” he said.
Earlier, people used to walk to the nearest police station or call 100 to lodge a complaint. Now, everything is through the social media platform...
Praveen Sood,
City Police Commissioner
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