The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : GPS to track police patrol vehicles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 06, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

GPS to track police patrol vehicles

Staff Reporter

System works with the help of satellites

Thiruvananthapuram: The city police have installed a Global Positioning System (GPS) to track patrol vehicles with the help of satellites. Fifteen `Flying Squad' vehicles and the police ambulance have been equipped with the tracking system. The Police Control Room uses electronic tracking devices to monitor the movement of police vehicles real time on a digital map.

The vehicles are tracked using a combination of global positioning satellites and Global System for Mobile communication (GSM). The relative position of the vehicle is projected on a digital map of the city. The system allows the Control Room to find out the direction and speed at which the Smart Vehicle Tracking System (SVTS) equipped Police `Flying Squads' are moving at any given point of time.

The system helped the police reduce its response time to distress calls from the public, said Assistant Commissioner, Control Room, Ramesh Babu. The position of the vehicles was displayed on a high resolution Geographic Information System (GIS) digital map. The police soon got a detailed digital map showing micro-level details, including individual houses, institutions, lanes and neighbourhoods.

The `Flying Squad' vehicles would be fitted with cameras. The satellite system could be also used for relaying live the pictures of action scenes. This would help senior officers assess law and order situations better. The images could also be furnished as evidence in courts.

The system also enabled top officials to monitor the functioning of Flying Squad vehicles. The same system could be used to monitor the movement of VIP vehicles. The GPS sets could also be used in private vehicles to prevent theft. The city police were increasingly relying on technology to beat crime and improve public service delivery. A camera surveillance system was on the anvil to monitor crime prone areas in the city, including Thampanoor, East Fort, and Thakaraparambu.

The city police have already installed an electronic device at the police control room to record wireless and telephone communications. The device could handle up to 20 channels of wireless and telephone communication.

The `digital voice logger' could record up to 40,000 hours of communication per channel. The system was tamper proof and the data stored could not be edited, copied or deleted.

The system helped improve police control room functioning, an official said. All calls made by people to police control rooms were recorded.

The system enabled senior officers to review police response to distress calls from the public. Toll-free telephone lines such as the Traffic Helpline (1090) and police control room (100) would also be connected to the digital voice logger, sources said.

The inputs from police wireless and select telephone lines would be stored in digital format in computer hard discs.

Senior officers would be able to retrieve and replay the recorded voice data.

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