Inter-provincial, inter-district: CCTV cameras to be installed at checkpoints in Punjab

LAHORE: Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shoaib Dastgir has directed the police top brass to start consultation process with the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) for installation of CCTV cameras for screening of number plates of vehicles on inter-provincial and inter-districts check posts across Punjab.

The provincial police chief issued this direction while chairing a meeting at the central police office (CPO) on Monday to review IT-related projects of the police department. He also directed to introduce new features to the Criminal Record Management System (CRMS). It is an internal software being used by the cops to monitor activities of alleged criminals and their history.

"New features should be incorporated into the CRMS to check the progress reports of cases present in police station so that any supervisory officer may seek information regarding registration of a case, date of submission of challan, arrest of the accused, details of accused released on bail, number of proclaimed offenders and also details of court decision along with other information with a single click through upgraded system," the IG said.

He added that the managing director of the PSCA should also be consulted regarding installation of CCVT cameras for screening of number plates of vehicles on inter-provincial and inter-districts check posts and also ensure that detailed record of theft vehicles is available in this integrated system with the help of these modern cameras on exit and entrance points. He said those cameras should issue a red-alert if they read any illegal number plate.

During the meeting, the IG observed that the current application for investigation wing just have features of ratio of punishments in heinous crimes including murder, dacoity and kidnapping for ransom. This app must have new features like reasons of delay in undertaking of MLC or sending of samples of DNA and their progress.

For restraining "professional witnesses" in courts, the IG directed to incorporate a new feature into the CRMS for identification of persons who give evidence or testify in more than three cases. He further said the process of identification parade of the accused along with the name of investigation officer should also be displayed with "zimniyat" in the CRMS. Prominent among the participants of the meeting were AIG Investigation Punjab Fiaz Ahmad Dev, DIG IT Punjab Waqas Nazeer, DIG Legal Jawad Dogar and AIG Monitoring and Analysis Umsam Bajwa.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020