Smart criminals force Delhi police to go hi-tech in a hurry

The smarter, more meticulous lot of interstate criminals that are targeting the NCR with reckless abandon have pushed the Delhi Police to deliver on its promise to get sufficiently high-tech rather soon. Jatin Anand reports.

The smarter, more meticulous lot of interstate criminals that are targeting the NCR with reckless abandon have pushed the Delhi Police to deliver on its promise to get sufficiently high-tech rather soon.

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“Policing can no longer be done on the ancient dossier system. There are so many criminals and so much paperwork. It is difficult to manually go through all the records when a criminal’s background needs to be checked. It’s about time that information was digitised,” said a senior police officer.

Senior police officers said criminals were increasingly becoming more meticulous in conducting recces of potential crime spots and using commonsense to dodge electronic surveillance.

“Instead of barging into a crime spot with masked faces, for instance, they now conduct detailed recces to identify CCTV blind spots. They enter a public place in a rush of people and position themselves at the blind spot before shedding a discernable item of clothing and putting their masks on,” he said.

Police said interstate gangs were also cutting their cellphone conversations short.

“It takes about two minutes to tap and trace a cellphone call; the criminals know that and limit their conversation to 30 seconds or 45 seconds which makes it difficult to trace the call,” the officer said.

Keeping this in mind, the Delhi Police is playing its part in ensuring that the capital’s market places and porous borders are under watch.

“The Cyber Highway project, that will connect the police forces of seven states, will be online by February 15. In addition, we will install CCTV cameras in 57 markets and at 27 border areas soon,” Delhi Police chief BK Gupta told Hindustan Times.