Presto! Crooks can be fixed in 15 sec

• A software APCATS developed by TCS will help police to track criminals in 15 seconds

• The software will be able to take the fingerprints of a suspect from the location with help of a fingerprint reader, search the database of the fingerprints of criminals and nail the person

• DGP Ramudu likely to launch the advanced software in early 2016 in Ongole

Ongole: The Andhra Pradesh police department has created a tool to make it easy for its personnel to nab culprits. With the new software being tested as a pilot project with Prakasam district police, they claim that tracing a criminal will be a matter of 15 seconds. Advanced Police Communication and Tracking System or APCATS is the software developed for the police department to see that their beat constables and blue colt vehicles are doing their job with precision. The department provided a software, in the GPS enabled smart phone and asked the constables to login the software at various locations of their beat. This helps the superior officers to track the policemen if they are doing their duty or not, with the help of the messages received from the GPS signal during login of the software.The Prakasam district Superintendent of Police Ch. Srikanth, wanted the software to be used more and more and urged the DGP to modernise it. The Tata Consultancy Services, the designer of the software, developed the new version of the software, with features that no police wing is using in the country.The Advanced Police Communication and Tracking System or APCATS, which is in testing phase in Prakasam district as pilot project proved more trustworthy. With this software, the police will now be able to take the fingerprints of a suspect from the location through the fingerprint reader, search the district level database of the fingerprints of criminals and verify if the suspect involved in any crime in the district in past within 15 seconds. V Surya Narayana, Circle Inspector of Command and Control room said, “Till now we used to take the suspect to the nearest police station and verify his finger prints with the data available in that police station and send his fingerprints to other stations for a search. This process may take up to 10 to 12 hours and the suspect should be in the custody of police for that period. If there is nothing fount against him, we will set him free.The people who have no proofs and cannot prove themselves innocent are to pass through unnecessary trauma in the process. But this software helps the person and the department in a great way. If there is nothing against a suspect in the police records, he may leave the place in just 15 seconds.”Another feature incorporated in the software, a constable can live stream the visual live to the control room, if a protest or clash turns violent, and request for extra force if required. As the streaming is automatically saved, the police can also identify the persons involved.The DGP is expected to launch the software in early 2016 in Ongole and is going to introduce the updated version in all the districts. The Prakasam district SP Ch Srikanth says that the Central government authorities had also enquired about the software and willing to incorporate it, once the digitalising of crime records in all States is completed, he added. “We are also using advance technology to outsmart the criminals and the software proved to be very helpful to the police and the common man. The software will be put to use in all districts soon after the State-level data base of crime records is established. With this, we can easily identify the person in disguise or absconding from other areas of the State in our location with just a finger print. As the national agencies are also interested in the software, we are confident that a person involved in a crime and hiding in other State, will not have that much luck in future.”