‘Modern methods of policing necessary to control crime’

KARACHI: Modern methods of policing necessary to control crime, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor.

He said the increasing trend of crime in our society is because these criminals are not easily traced as our police still use old traditional policing methods. He said modern surveillance cameras with face recognition technology are not being used widely in our country like other advanced nations.

He said our government could use this technology with the help of China to ensure a better surveillance system especially in the urban areas.

He said these cameras are also greatly helpful to control traffic violations in cities. He said the safe city projects in our country are also at the initial level and in many cases the pace of their installation is very slow.

He said proper funding and technical assistance should be provided to complete these projects on a war footing basis.

He said recent politically motivated riots, terrorism and hooliganism in our country has underscored the need for an increased use of AI in our policing and security setups.

Altaf Shakoor said our police, including traffic police, are corrupt and inefficient. Their major purpose of coming on duty is to extort bribes from citizens and sadly for this job the government not only provides them uniform but also monthly salary and pension after retirement.

He said the very cops that are supposed to provide safety to citizens in fact loot them with both hands. He demanded the use of AI to detect these corrupt cops and purge the police department from them.

Altaf Shakoor said the use of artificial intelligence would reduce the need of relying on manpower and thus funds of our police and security institutions could be used in an even better way.

He said police personnel should always carry body cameras and their vehicles, pickets and other institutions must have proper surveillance systems based on AI. He said modern cameras should be installed at roads to automatically detect traffic violating vehicles and challan them electronically.

He said surveillance cameras should be used to stop road encroachments, as traffic police and district police officers themselves protect roadside encroachment of vendors against daily bribe collection called Bhatta.

He said in each and every police station and traffic police units fixed teams of cops collect Bhatta and a share of it is also given to senior police officers including those of SSP rank.

He said this is an open secret and the chief minister, home minister and IGP also know it but they could not check it as they themselves are also part of a corrupt system in some way.

Altaf Shakoor said the process of issuing driving license and vehicle papers should be made easy.

He said driving license branches should be opened at Taluka and town level to facilitate the citizens, as presently about 60 percent people drive cars and bikes without any valid license.

He said the paperwork for change of ownership of vehicles should be made easy and corruption free and as many processes should be made online as possible.

He said we must get rid of the colonial clerk or Baboo system that is the basic cause of corruption and poor governance.

He said use of AI in government departments would help eliminate this Baboo system and thus eradicate the menace of corruption in our country.

He said our colleges and universities should offer degrees and courses in AI to cater the growing need of this emerging sector.

He said without modernization of our society we can't compete in the fast changing world.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023