Noida police stations to soon get cybercrime help desks

Noida: Gautam Budh Nagar is likely to get a cyber help desk at every police station level soon which will resolve daily issues, and special desks at zonal levels to resolve critical incidents, police officials said on Sunday

Noida: Gautam Budh Nagar is likely to get a cyber help desk at every police station level soon which will resolve daily issues, and special desks at zonal levels to resolve critical incidents, police officials said on Sunday. The move is aimed at tackling the increasing cybercrime incidents in the city, they added.

The Gautam Budh Nagar police conducted a training session on cybercrime for police officials in Noida on Sunday. (Sunil Ghosh/HT)

For now, most of the cybercrimes are handled by a specialised cyber cell, and victims who approach the local police station are often sent there.

According to a senior official, several cybercrime cases are reported in the city on a daily basis, of which a majority is related to online fraud. Officials said this on the side-lines of a workshop organised to train the police officials on handling complaints related to cybercrimes.

The police commissioner of Gautam Budh Nagar, Alok Singh, said that they are working on a strategy, under which the incidents of cybercrimes could be reported at the police station level soon, and the incidents may be moved to the next level as per the severity.

“To handle the incidents, we are working on a strategy under which all three zones of the city will have cyber help desks in the first stage, and every police station will have a cybercrime help desk in the future, which will take cognisance of relevant incidents. The routine or general cyber incidents shall be resolved at the police station level, while those with relatively higher severity shall be escalated further,” Singh said.

On Sunday, the Gautam Budh Nagar police held a workshop for all the DCPs and other police officers in Noida, to train and brief them on how to handle complaints related to cybercrimes. The training session, chaired by Singh, and held by a private consultant, specifically for the investigators at the police station level, focused on what should be the first response if someone reports a cybercrime-related incident.

“Cybercrime incidents are on the rise, and maximum cases are related to online cheating and fraud which constitute about 60% of the total incidents. Today, we held a training session for our SHOs, investigators, etc., on the same. The session focused on several things, including how to handle the routine cybercrime incidents, basic tools on how to reach the cyber criminals, and providing relief to the victims,” Singh said.

According to the officials, Noida sees several hundred cybercrime incidents in a month. “About 60% of the reported cases are routine or related to online fraud, fake IDs, and smaller transactions, while the remaining 40% are critical incidents,” said a police official.