GPS project shows no signs of progress

GPS project shows no signs of progress

The city’s dream project is getting delayed as a large part of the amount reserved for the purpose is being used for other purposes.

Deccan Herald

The Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system for policing in Bangalore may not be a reality in the near future. This facility is among the several innovative schemes included by the Police Department in its modernisation plans since 1998, the implementation of which has shown no signs of progress.

The cost of the plan is estimated to be about Rs 2 crore. While the police had been setting aside around the same sum for implementing the project every year under the modernisation scheme, little has come out of it. This is mainly because a large chunk of money under the modernisation scheme went towards housing and purchase of vehicles.

With the Union government now planning a nodal agency to implement and manage GIS (Global Imaging System) and GPS in Indian police departments by setting set up a National Crime Mapping Research Centre (NCMRC) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Bangalore’s dream project, is likely to be even further delayed.

If the GPS system is introduced, all patrol vehicles would be fitted with a GPS device to help pinpoint their location with the help of a digital map. The police control room could zero in on the vehicle nearest to the scene of crime or place of occurrence of untoward incidents and direct it to the spot.

The city police toyed with the idea of introducing the GPS system in the mid-nineties when T Srinivasulu was the City Police Commissioner. A team of police officers from the city was sent to Dubai for training, but the plan never took off. So far four successive commissioners have seen at least 20 demonstrations from various companies including GPS manufacturing giant Motorola and the Public Sector Unit Bharath Electronics Limited.

Benefits
According to a senior police officer, GPS technology can offer numerous benefits to Criminal Justice Agencies of all types, for police agencies, the navigation capabilities offered by GPS might enhance efficiency and safety. Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS) using GPS and GIS technology to provide data about the road system can be translated into actions, by traffic managers, to control and expedite the flow of traffic.

Law enforcement personnel can use the same information, relayed to them by traffic managers, to clear roadway blockages. The same information, supplied to the average motorist, can help them decide a course of action that will keep them from having to wait in stalled traffic.

The GPS system can also provide field reporting and data capture, enabling investigators to assemble case files containing information that was previously next to impossible to obtain and adequately correlate. With the use of differential GPS, investigators can precisely relate evidence placement to crime scene reconstruction diagrams. Similar systems can also be applied to accident investigation and reconstruction. By tying evidence into a GIS format, cases can be graphically displayed to show the temporal and spatial relationships of crime reports, witness statements, evidence, and crime scene drawings. These presentation formats can be easily and automatically displayed for court, training, and briefing purposes.

In India, the police forces of Hyderabad, Mumbai, Goa, Delhi and Chennai are the front-runners in using GIS and GPS for Crime prevention and control.
Under consideration

Speaking to Deccan Herald Commissioner of Police S Mariswamy said that the project though a dream project for the city police had not taken off due to various reasons. But the project was under serious consideration, he claimed. The project will definitely help the city police in tackling crimes, he added.