Frequency mismatch: High-tech gizmos, techno-unsavvy police

Crores of rupees have been spent on equipping Mumbai police with the latest gizmos, and several more has been sanctioned for more of such equipment. “Plans are afoot for upgradation, modernisation and automation of the police force which will cost over Rs 14 crore to the state exchequer. Of this, Rs 8 crore will be spent on communication and Rs 6 crore on computerisation,” says Jt CP (administration) T K Choudhary. But this access to technology helped has not the department improve its efficiency. There has been a marked rise in murders this year, robberies are on the rise, rapes are rising and so are white collar crimes.

Barring the use of mobile phones by senior officers and pagers by their subordinates, not one instance can be cited where technology has helped the police in nabbing a criminal or foiling an escape bid this year. Cassette king Gulshan Kumar was killed a little distance away from the D N Nagar police station and builder Natwarlal Desai a few yards away from Mantralaya. In both the cases, assailants managed to escape without any problem. The Motorola wireless sets that police wield proved ineffective in cordoning off a high-security area like Nariman Point. Forget cordoning off, the commissioner, who was busy addressing a press conference when Desai was gunned down, was not even aware of the murder till some journalists told him about it. Quite predictably, nobody was held responsible for the lapse – just a few disappointed stares at the wireless sets.

Now, Mumbai police have started experimenting with ultra-high frequency (UHF) communication system which has cost them Rs 8 crore. Cleared by state assembly in July last, this system is to become operational by January 1. However, quite a few senior officers cannot communicate on the handsets because they just can’t get the right frequency. The Delhi police and the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of Gujarat police have been making frantic efforts get UHF system, but with little success. Our men have got it, but will it help them? Well, if it doesn’t then micro-active connectivity will.There are only 57 trained operators of the rank of head constables in the department. Only about half a dozen top-rung officers are conversant with computers. When this reporter sought some statistical information about the departmental action taken against some cops this year and previous years from a DCP at headquarter, he was not able to give the figures for three months. Later, he said the information has not been keyed in and that his men will have to compile the same manually. While some officers blame lack of orientation courses for this, others say their men are not willing to learn.

More than 120 computer systems have been installed at various police stations and in the offices of senior officers. But these are hardly used. The air-conditioned rooms where these machines are kept, however, are. Senior police inspectors use the cool confines of these rooms for their afternoon siestas. While some sleep with them, others are too scared to touch them.

But, all this is not preventing the department from looking at new possibilities. Soon, an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) will be installed in Mumbai even as the department plugs in to the Crime and Criminal Information System (CCIS). However, the entire supervision and installation will be monitored by the officers who are not exactly conversant with the intricacies of the computers. The three top level officers who are at the helm of the programme do not have any exposure to such hi-tech projects. Obviously there is heavy dependence on the lower-rung officers.

“Everyone of us may not be a computer expert. But then those who know to operate can do it for us,” concedes additional commissioner of police, crime, Shiv Pratap Singh Yadav.