Cops take steps to improve cybercrime detection skills

Police will increase manpower of cyber cell, train officers, set up cyber lab

Alarmed by the increasing cases of card frauds and online cheating, the Navi Mumbai police seem to have pulled up their socks and act finally.

Apart from deciding to increase the manpower in the cyber cell, the police are concentrating on improving detection skills of their officers. They are sharing details with all cyber cells of the state to identify and zero in on the criminals involved in crimes such as phishing and vishing, a senior officer said.

Last week, HT reported that as many as 361 card fraud cases were registered by the police in the city in the first four months. On an average, three people lose money from their bank accounts every day.

“First, the strength of the cyber cell will be increased soon. We have one inspector, one assistant inspector and 15 constables in the cyber cell. The required number of constables to tackle the increasing crimes is around 25. We will see how many more officers we can get for the cell,” said Dilip Sawant, deputy commissioner of police (crime).

“Henceforth, the cyber cell officials will do only the technical works from the lab. They waste their time by going to field to collect details of a case or to arrest an accused. We have decided to send officers from other units of the crime branch for such works,” he said.

“Third, for honing their detection skills by keeping a tab on the changing scenario of the cyber world, the officers will get training from time to time. A Mumbai-based organisation will train officials who are posted or going to be posted in the cyber cell,” he said.

The existing cyber lab of Navi Mumbai police has nine computers. However, due to lack of advanced technologies, complicated cases cannot be solved here and often officers have to take help of the Mumbai police.

A new cyber lab is also being planned at the upcoming CCTV command centre to be constructed by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) near the police commissioner’s office at CBD Belapur. “The proposed new lab will be equipped with forensic tools for detecting all crimes,” another officer said.

Sawant said, “In view of the increasing challenges in the cyber world, all cyber cells of the state have formed a messaging group. We share information required for preventing and detecting such crimes. Cyber officers from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other states are also providing us inputs.”

He said that the biggest problem is lack of awareness among people.

“They easily trust people who want to help them at banks and ATMs. We appeal to residents to not give their details such as PIN number, account number, card number and date of birth to any random people. These details should not be given to anyone over phone or replying to any mail,” he added.