The Punjab Police have set up a cybercrime centre with the state-of-the-art facilities to track criminal activities and solve cases linked to online scams through an integrated system of policing.
Under the project, the police have also installed over 300 cameras in the city and near the International Border with Pakistan to detect number plates of vehicles used by criminals.
The centre, which will be monitoring all entry and exit points of Pathankot, was inaugurated by Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Monday at the Division No. 1 police station.
A Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), a modern interrogation centre and a social media unit have been placed under the facility, called as ‘Police Command and Control Centre.
A CCTNS is an integrated online platform conceptualised by the Union government for effective policing with the help of information technology.
The centre has been placed under a DSP-rank officer and only those employees who have a background in technical education will be working there.
“If a resident is cheated online, he can immediately contact the police station. The resident will also has the option of calling on number 1930 linked to the police station,” said SSP Daljinder Singh Dhillon.
The police also made public the name of the portal where such incidents can be reported.
“A total of 340 auto number plate reader (ANPR) cameras have been installed both in the city and near the International Border while 357 more will be installed soon. Any suspicious movement near the border will be captured by these cameras,” said a senior officer.
ANPR cameras are a unique addition to the police infrastructure. These devices capture number plate images and convert them into alphanumeric characters at a quick speed. The police can then cross-check them with a database of registered vehicles.
