The Sindh police will be able to generate computerised first investigation reports (FIRs) in English, Urdu or Sindhi after the launch of the Police Record and Office Management Information System (PROMIS).
PROMIS will be ready for launch after adopting some minor logistics requirements and maintenance of equipment already installed at the sites.
During a briefing at a meeting chaired by Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Wajid Ali Khan Durrani at the Central Police Office, Sindh Police Information Technology Director Tabbasum Abid said that PROMIS has been designed to compile data of various police stations in a central database.
“The main data centre will be connected to 196 sites including police stations and commanding offices throughout the province,” she added. “According to statistics, 125 sites have been designated in Karachi, 24 in Hyderabad, seven in Mirpurkhus, 11 in Sukkur, 11 in Larkana and one each in the remaining 18 districts.”
She said that in first phase of its operation, PROMIS will be able to collect information about FIRs and daily station diaries and investigation assignments. “Criminal records with pictures and fingerprints would be included in the second step.”
She said that the system was linked to the Federal Investigation Agency headquarters and in addition, the system has the capability to be linked with NADRA and NARA.
The IGP ordered the DIG East Karachi to coordinate the launch of PROMIS at 125 designated sites in Karachi.
He directed the DIG Administration Karachi to identify and enlist computer literate police personnel for starting the project.
The provincial police chief also formed a steering committee to finalise the successful launching of PROMIS.
According to reports, the project was scheduled to be completed in June 2009 in Sindh. It has already been implemented in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some districts of Punjab. A major chunk of the investment was used to procure hardware but the project hit snags and finally its deadline lapsed just because of delays over software installation.
Overall, the project envisages digitisation of the complete record of 1,350 police stations in 120 districts of the country. The project approved by the federal government in 2005 costs Rs 1.4 billion.
The project is aimed at replacing the piles of papers and registers generally locked away in dusty cupboards of police stations with monitors, keyboards, printers along with modems and telephone sets. With the help of this technology, police can share criminal record of the suspects arrested anywhere in the country and verify record of cases against them from other police stations.
Every police office from the level of the station house officer and to the IGP received hardware comprising a monitor, a keyboard, a modem, a printer and a telephone set. The hardware has been placed in almost every room of the central police office of Sindh police.
Cables and wires have been properly installed and generators and uninterrupted power supply systems placed at some places for the project. At many police stations, where proper infrastructure was unavailable in the SHO’s room, construction was carried out especially for the project.
However, most officers are unaware of the details of the computer hardware and have little knowledge that it is related to a federal government project aimed at interlinking police stations.
