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Neighborhood Cops with an E-weapon

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DQI Bureau
New Update

E-governance is touted by many as the next great Indian revolution. Beyond

the hype, however, is a growing movement in India and other Asian countries to

experiment with government-by-Internet. However, the current e-government mantra–focused

on digital divides, killer applications and budget savings–misses the more

compelling questions: Will e-government transform how government interacts with

the populace or serve as a convenience for busy citizens and civil servants? Are

we on the threshold of a digital democracy or merely heading towards constant

policy-by-polling? If we look at the states offering egovernance solutions

within India then perhaps the name of Andhra Pradesh will come as a

front-runner. Powered by Sun Microsystems, the AP government has deployed a

project ‘e-COPS’ wherein a much needed interface has been created between

the citizens and the police department.

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eCOPS is up and running in all the four pilot locations i.e. Hyderabad,

Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and Srikakulam District. Ranga Reddy District is

expected to be completed by the end of February ’03. Though the facility to

actually file an FIR online is not available as of now, the department is going

to provide it soon. The project will be implemented initially in 279 locations

as a pilot project, covering three Commissionerates of Police (Hyderabad,

Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam), Srikakulam District, one Andhra Pradesh special

police battalion, one police training college and office of director

general of police.

Criminal database



The platform provider Sun has provided AP State police multiple E450 (type

of Sun Server) servers to run this project across the state. Criminals trying to

hoodwink the cops beware–the AP police have a computerized databank of

criminals. The AP police is developing a databank of listed offenders in all

criminal cases reported in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Vishakapatnam, and Srikakulam

district. During the last six months, the department has generated information

on 11,000 people accused in various cases in Hyderabad alone, while it collected

data on 4,000 other offenders listed in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and

Srikakulam.

"Once the e-cops is extended to other districts, the department hopes to

have the largest database available. Access to the database is being provided to

police stations to assist in their investigations. They can use the facility for

interrogation of the persons. A user friendly software is developed for this

that can be handled even at the constable level to operate the software and cull

out the necessary details," said, SV Ramana Murthy, IGP (Police Computer

Services).

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This system enables the officers to gather more details about the offenders

and enables them to extract the needed information efficiently and accurately.

At the same time as far as the police department is concerned not much has

changed and there are a lot of people who still don’t know anything about

computers and it will take sometime before benefits from initiatives like this

can be reaped to the full.

This software is being integrated with the existing computerized fingerprint

database of listed criminals. The police computer services has the largest

number of computerized fingerprints–2.64 lakh criminals–which enables the

state police to solve crimes more effectively.

The Kolkata experience



The Traffic Police of Kolkata have introduced a novel service to have a

better interaction between the citizens and the police. The SMS based

interaction service allows people to interact with the traffic police easily.

"If anybody wants to report anything to us, all they need to do is to key

in the message and SMS it to us and we will take care of the matter. So far this

solution has helped us a lot in bridging the divide between the police and the

public. Anyone can dial 9830098100 to make a complaint, and on an average we get

more than 20 complaints a day since it was launched in October. People are now

more open with us," says M K Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police at

Kolkata.

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High Bet



Governments of all political persuasions will feel the pressure to adapt.

Investors will increasingly factor in the e-government environment–meaning

less red tape, more transparent regulations, easier payment of fees–into

business decision making. A country’s or city’s future competitiveness will

rest on how it positions itself in the race for investment. Governments,

especially in smaller countries and localities that are not prepared to reform,

will watch businesses migrate elsewhere, or never invest at all. But online

services for businesses will not neatly translate into more participatory

governance for citizens.

None of this diminishes the democratizing potential of e-government. Online

governments need not simply mean fewer lines or faster permits. There are plenty

of caveats to implementing e-government. Digital divides exist within societies.

Unraveling the complexities of online government requires sustained political

commitment and a measure of techno-literacy among leaders. What has been started

by the Southern states within India is catching on very fast all over the

country, and that’s the reason we hear about even states that are less IT

savvy like UP talking high on e-governance now.

Privacy and security concerns must be addressed. Yet, the operative issue for

e-government is the readiness of governments to democratize access to

information. Are they ready to replace command-and-control with

click-and-connect? For the moment, the digital divide applies equally to all

levels of government. Yet, to the extent that citizen-oriented approaches are

adopted, e-government may signal a step toward e-Pluribus Unum.

Zia Askari (Cyber News Service)



in Hyderabad

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