Police force goes digital to save on time and resources

Now on, senior officers of DCP level will conduct video conferencing to talk with their juniors to keep track of FIRs or other related work on their PCs

Earlier if I had to call for an urgent meeting of Addl CPs or DCPs or Sr PIs, they had to personally come to my office. It used to kill their valuable time. Since all the systems are connected through intranet, so now we interact through video conference for office-related work DATTA PADSALGIK AR Mumbai Police Commissioner

As a part of paperless work in the force, the officers of and above the rank of inspector have been given computer in their offices and user ID and password has been created rank wise to operate the system. Earlier the circulation of a notice or Government Resolution (GR) was a mammoth task which involved paper as well as manpower and also consumed a lot of time.

“The digitisation has saved time and resources. Earlier if I had to call for an urgent meeting of Additional Commissioners of Police (Addl CPs) or DCPs or Sr. PIs, they all the way had to travel to my office. It used to kill their valuable time. Since all the systems are connected through intranet, so now we easily conduct video conference to talk to our officers,” said Mumbai police commissioner Datta Padsalgikar, who is the brainchild behind making the Mumbai police as ‘paperless’. Now the senior officers of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) level and above conduct video conferencing to talk to their junior subordinates. Besides this, the officers easily keep track of the progress of FIR or other related work on their computer.

“Earlier we had to de-clutter the paper piles to search for a file related to an FIR. It was really a herculean task. The average search time for such file was at least a week and sometimes it took us months to search. But now the web-based paperless management system has saved our time. We have been given log-in ID and password to keep track of the work at police station level,” said a senior IPS officer, who added that the digitisation has ‘eased the statistical work’ in the force.

All the police stations, DCP offices, Addl CPs, units of crime branch, traffic police officers, special units, LA, and other side branches have been given at least one computer with the user ID and password.

There is a call centre type set up next to Mumbai Police Control Room that provides the software as well hardware support to the entire department.

And if the problem does get solved on phone, a technical team visits the spot and solves their problem. Several private IT firms helped setting up the technical cell which is under the control of DCP (Op).