Starting Thursday, the Telangana police department will take up a comprehensive survey of all kinds of criminals across the length and breadth of the state to prepare a database so as to help identify and track them whenever there is an offence.
The exercise, called “Sakala Nerasthula Samagra Survey” (Comprehensive survey of all criminals), is aimed at not only enumerating criminals in the state, but also geo-tagging them and their addresses, Telangana director general of police (DGP) M Mahender Reddy said in a statement.
All police officers in the state, right from the lowest rank up to the DGP, will visit habitations to enroll offenders with criminal history in the last 10 years. “The exercise is expected to be completed in a day or two, but it will be extended for a few more days depending on the number of offenders,” the DGP said.
The Telangana police department has already launched a mobile application TSCOP to store the details of a person involved in an offence, including photographs, fingerprints and also details of their associates, to ensure a close watch on them continuously.
The DGP said all the police stations in the state, including the railway police, have past criminal records with respect to serious as well as organised crimes, property offences and offences against women. Based on the offenders’ residential addresses, the officials would conduct the survey in a hassle-free manner.
{{/usCountry}}The DGP said all the police stations in the state, including the railway police, have past criminal records with respect to serious as well as organised crimes, property offences and offences against women. Based on the offenders’ residential addresses, the officials would conduct the survey in a hassle-free manner.
{{/usCountry}}They would carry out physical verification of the current address and activity of each offender residing in their jurisdiction, irrespective of the fact whether they have committed crimes in the past in their police station limits or elsewhere.
Each police station will constitute teams to go on the field, trace offenders and enumerate and geo-tag their details. All district superintendents of police, commissioners of police, range deputy inspectors general (DIGs) and regional inspectors general of police (IGPs) will personally monitor the exercise in their respective jurisdictions.
The data collected will include photographs, fingerprints and other details of criminals and their associates with special focus on repeat offenders.
“A database prepared will give a 360 degree profile of offenders and their current activities. The entire criminal database of the state will be uploaded to the crime data analytics unit of the TSCOP app,” the DGP said.
He said the exercise would enable police officers keep a continuous surveillance on criminals and monitor their activities by accessing information real-time while on field duty. Technology tools like Big Data Analytics will be used to proactively predict and prevent crime in addition to detection of crimes already occurred.
“This will instil a sense of certainty of getting caught and certainty of getting punished, leading to an environment of deterrence against crime, furthering the mission of zero-tolerance against crimes in the state,” the DGP said.