Delay in registration of cases not to be tolerated: IG

LAHORE: The Punjab police have traced 1,179 criminals, including 11 fourth schedulers, from all over the province through the newly introduced Hotel Eye software.

Sharing ‘success stories’ of this technology at a meeting on Friday, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Information Technology Shahid Hanif said that transformation into a technology-based system had started bearing fruit. Initially, the system had been introduced in Lahore and after a successful launch replicated to other major cities.

Presided over by Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, the meeting was attended by Additional IGP (AIG) Operations/Investigation retired Capt Arif Nawaz, AIG (Welfare and Finance) Shoaib Dastgir, DIG (Operations) Aamir Zulfiqar Khan and Lahore Crime Record Officer (CRO) Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Imran Yaqoob besides other senior police officers.

DIG Hanif apprised the meeting that the particulars of 473,000 persons were checked through the software, out of which data of 1,476 was matched with the police database. Of these 1,476, 1,179 criminals were wanted by police. As many as 11 out of these, were enlisted in the fourth schedule.

This data has proved the success of the Criminal Record Management System Project, the DIG claimed at the meeting.

IGP Sukhera said that delay in registration of cases on genuine applications will not be tolerated. He directed police officers concerned to register cases on time in police stations by making monitoring of the registration process more effective and transparent. He also directed the DIG IT and the monitoring police authorities to submit a detailed report about the station house officers delaying lodging of first information reports (FIRs) to hold them accountable.

The IGP also directed that the Criminal Record System should be updated daily with fingerprints, pictures, identity card numbers, addresses and mobile numbers of the arrested culprits.

CRO SSP Yaqoob briefed the IGP that 56 criminals involved in serious offences had been arrested after their fingerprints were matched with the data in the record system.

DIG (Discipline) Shahzada Sultan apprised the meeting that 30,864 applications against police officers and officials had been received during the last year regarding slackness in duty, faulty investigations, non-registration of FIRs and other complaints. Out of these, 26,756 applications were disposed of while inquiries on 4,108 others were under way, he added.

While appreciating the efforts of the CRO SSP, the IGP further directed him that the Mega Matcher software be fully utilised and fingerprints saved in the database should matched with the old record.

Source: Dawn