Police patrolling, or `beat system’ as devised by the British rulers of India over a century ago, is still used in every nook and corner of India to prevent crimes and nab the culprits at the earliest. But the system, robust as it may have been, is now showing its age. Keeping this in mind, Tamil Nadu IPS officer Mr Prem Anand Sinha has launched an `E-Beat Madurai’ app to strengthen the system.
In short, and this may be a first anywhere in the country, technology has been roped in to give fighting edge to the ageing police patrolling system. Needless to say, it’s implication for the entire country would be tremendous.
By launching the e-beat mobile application, Mr Sinha, who is also the City Police Commissioner of Madurai, is looking forward to a smooth and manipulation free patrolling.
Speaking about it, he said, “In the traditional crime prevention system, patta passbooks are kept at locations like banks, ATMs, markets and crime-prone areas where beat officers visit to check the regular compliance. The patta book ensures that the beat officer or constable is covering every nook and corner of the city. Secondly, every day an inspector or a DSP rank officer conduct surprise check of one such patta book to see the time when the beat officer signed it. Also in the morning a report is generated where all the places checked by the beat officers are listed,”
However, there are some loopholes which Mr. Sinha found in the process of this age-old traditional practice of patrolling.
CLOSING THE LOOPHOLES
While speaking about the various loopholes this process carries, Mr. Sinha said “As this traditional system has to be processed manually, it carries certain inadequacies. The main issue has been the checking and compilation of every patta book which is managed by the Station House Officer. It is a very tough task for them to visit every location and check entries of the beat officers.”
Therefore, to find a solution to this conventional policing method, Mr. Sinha started the digitization of the entire process. He said, “This initiative in not new, as earlier when cell phones were not there, questions machines were used to scan or record the movement of the beat officers. But now we have launched QR codes instead of using patta books to record the time and place of visit of the beat officer.”
THE CHANGES
The ‘E-Beat Madurai’ app which is available on Google Play store, will be accessed by every police personnel and used is scanning the QR code. The code has been placed at 700 different locations throughout the city.
Explaining the operation, Mr. Sinha said “Now, every beat officer has to scan the QR code instead of making an entry in the patta book. As soon as this is done, the record of the place and the time of visit will be entered in the server of the application. By the end of the night, the senior officer will get a readymade extract of the whole data which includes all the places in the city which have been visited by these beat officers. As the app is used by every constable, it is easy to find out about the officers who did not visit any particular place.”
This method of digitizing the process will also help in saving time of the senior officer in compiling the entries every day.
BENEFITS
This initiative, which has been taken to overcome the loopholes faced by Madurai police during patrolling and using patta passbooks, has many advantages. Mr. Sinha said, “Earlier problems like damage to patta books were faced by the police; but with the installation of QR codes the process requires no writing, signing or touching as the code can be scanned from a distance. The compilation of the data is automated and is genuine, as now there is no chance of fudging, forgery or manipulation.”
The move will also help in better supervision and smooth patrolling. And hopefully, it should result in a reduction of crimes too.
