DG of National Security Guards calls for overhaul of civil police and improve police-population ratio
Stress on use of analytics for protection from crime and enhancing security
NEW DELHI, July 24, 2014. Mr. J.N. Choudhury, Director General, National Security Guards (NSG), today underlined the need tostrengthen civil police and improve the police-population ratio, which is well below par at present.
Speaking at the sixth edition of FICCI Homeland Security 2014 here,Mr. Choudhury said that technology serves both police and criminals. In the absence of standardized testing centres, the police has not been able to adopt many new technologies that are available in the market. On the other hand, criminals have access to these modern techniques as evidenced by recent attacks that have been witnessed the world over.
He said that India’s homeland securitylacked the means to evaluate the new technologies and added that there is a need to built testing facilitates to check the efficiency and effectiveness of technologies.
Mr. Choudhary pointed out that the quality of manpower and training in homeland security do not match up to global standards. Therefore, capacity building and improvement in training standards was imperative.
On the occasion, Mr. Choudhury releasedthe FICCI- EY report titled ‘Homeland Security 2014
Safe and Secure Nation – Intelligence-led Policing’.
The report highlights the need for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to urgently deploy appropriate technology to be able to analyze the available data and counter challenges posed by limited resources. LEAs gather a huge amount of data from varied sources such as banks, telecoms, traffic information, social media, criminal records and airlines. All of this data has to be refined and analyzed to cull out the critical information required for solving and preventing crime. Analytics is the key technology that can help LEAs understand information and act accordingly.
Mr. Sanjay Sahay, IPS, Additional DGP, Police Computer Wing, Karnataka State Police, said that the Indian market has a potential of US$ 9 billion in homeland security.However, disconnect between enforcement agencies and market, is affecting the potential of the sector. The world over many cities are enabled with video analytics and no Indian city is video analytics enabled, which shows lack of use of technology.
Karnataka State Police is the supporting partner of the conference.
Mr. G. K. Pillai, Chair, FICCI Homeland Security Committee, said that therecruitment process of the enforcement agencies should be transparent. He added that Centre and State authorities needed to cooperate with each other more effectively. Civil society also needs to play a more proactive role. The Central and State police forces need to build citizens’ confidence in the system and involve them in resolving issues related to crime and traffic.
Mr. Rahul Rishi, Partner, EY, said thatthe tactics of criminals have evolved alongside the rapid progress in the field of science and technology, leading to an increased gamut of crimes carried out using advanced means and techniques. Law Enforcement Agencies, thus, need to develop ways and means to prevent their incidence altogether. If an incident does occur, the turnaround time of LEAs to nab the culprit needs to be cut down to minimum.
The required level of advancement can be achieved through technology and capacity building. In India, Law Enforcement Agencies have adopted the basic level of automation. The next level of technology capability would be attained when they use relevant data to cull out useful information that helps them prevent any incident. Analytics is the key technology that needs to be incorporated for increasing the capabilities of LEAs in predicting and preventing incidents.
Analytics finds it ways in commercial taxes, customs, police, intelligence agency, investigative agency, disaster management and many other sensitive areas. It highlights patterns that cannot be detected by manual interventions.
Dr. Vivek Lall, Co-Chair, FICCI Homeland Security Committee and CEO- New Ventures, Reliance Industries Ltd., said that FICCI and EY report not only takes us through the stats on crime in India, but also provides us with a blueprint of what is in store for us in future. The emphasis on analytics is both apt and pertinent. Analytics can be used in all stages of crime protection and security, i.e., prevention, investigation, prosecution, and review and analysis.
Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI, said that FICCI is committed to the cause of public safety and security. The Indian homeland security market is rapidly growing to meet the increasing demands of security in the country. The noteworthy fact is that over half of the market growth is expected to come from demands in new equipments, especially for electronic surveillance, intelligent integration systems and early warning systems.
The programme witnessed participation from MHA, NCRB, CBI and various state police officials.