Police Department goes high-tech

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

The Sri Lanka Police Department (SLPD) is undoubtedly one of the most experienced police forces in the world, not because it investigates crimes reported each day, but due to the exposure it received by fighting terrorism for nearly three decades.

DIG W. F. U. Fernando - in charge of the IT division.

But unlike its sophisticated regional counterparts, the SLPD was hardly anywhere close to the ever developing technology.

However, a significant change took place last week when the entire department was introduced to a VPN system that would undoubtedly enhance operations in maintaining the law.

VPN, which is the acronym for Virtual Private Network, is a system which could extend a private network across a public network, such as the internet. It enables a computer to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if it is directly connected to the private network, while benefiting from the functionality, security and management policies of the private network.

In other words by adopting a VPN system the department could transfer all its operations which had been limited to ‘old fashioned’ paper work and manual handling into an integrated IT base system.

Until last week communication between a regular police station and the police headquarters was limited to using facsimile or telephone messages. But with the activation of the new system it gives the opportunity to communicate through emails and video confer among senior officials.

Apart from being engaged in day-to-day law enforcement operations, a police station has numerous routine duties to perform in maintaining functionality according to standards set up by the department. These duties include of sending reports like daily reports, crime reports, finger print reports, to send circulars as well as to transfer messages. All these duties had been done using fax machines and paper to date. All the Police Senior Superintendent Divisions receive these document from each and every station listed under its area and purview daily and final reports being prepared on these summaries are faxed to the HQ everyday.

Officers at the VPN Ops Room

This consumes a lot of time and involves stacks of paperwork that has to be stored and preserved for future reference. But when everything was entered into a computer system it is a matter of clicking a button to send them from one location to another.

The Virtual Private Network enables sending all these data through email in a secure medium which could not be hacked by a third party. It will fulfill one of the chief targets of the department to create a paper-free working environment.

Most importantly this will link every police station in the country into one main system where the Officer-in-Charge of particular station could contact the Inspector General of Police on a video call at any time through a private login only granted to the officer-in-charge.

The IGP could also hold a video conference with his nine Senior Deputy Inspector Generals at the same time like a Skype call in a secure manner. Every officer in charge of a station, special branch or unit, a division, a district or a province including a range have been given an unique login name and password to log into the system.

Another important benefit that could be harvested from this system is sending or finding details of a wanted person. At present if an inquiry is done by a police station regarding a suspect, that particular station has to write to many other units or send messages to receive information related to the suspect. But with the new system a special database would be maintained about the information of criminals, suspects and missing suspects which any inquiring officer could obtain without any hassle and delay.

In relation to the VPN system several pilot projects are being launched to monitor crime and intelligence data, administrative data and automated fingerprint identification system.

DIG W. F. U. Fernando who is in charge of Police IT Division and Police Field Force Headquarters in Bambalapitya explained to the Sunday Observer how this concept was born in 2011. The need to set up an interconnected service with security was much felt at that time where DIG Fernando submitted a concept paper to the then IGP Mahinda Balasuriya.

DIG Fernando who obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from University of Jayawardenapura, is a Post Graduate Diploma Holder in Public Management at SLIDA. He has an ICT Diploma from Sweden and an EC Council in USA. Possessing a wide knowledge in the field of IT, DIG Fernando prepared a cost estimate for the system which received the approval of the Ministry of Defence and tenders were called from 11 companies.

A tender board was appointed, lead by DIG Fernando to select the most viable company. Lecturer of Moratuwa University Dr. Shehan Perera, MOD Accountant, Mrs. S M Jayasinghe, Computer Engineer Tharaka Seneviratne and OIC Software Development Unit of SLAF Squadron Leader T C Madduwage took part in the tender board.

JIT Holdings (Just In Time) Holdings was selected to be the software provider of the new system to work with Sri Lanka Telecom, which is the official infrastructure provider. In the second phase of the project all the OICs and officers above that will be given a special handset to contact any other officer free of charge through the VPN system. SLT Mobitel has agreed to facilitate this project.

Under the main project nine Senior DIGs, 22 Territorial DIGs, 18 Functional DIGs, 40 Teritorial SSPs, 50 Functional Directorate SSPs, 62 Headquarters Inspectors and all the 24 OICs in Colombo will be linked together.

A special Operations Room had been established in Field Force Headquarters in Bambalapitiya to respond to any technical or other emergency surfaces through the new system. VPN Ops Room is headed by its OIC Chief Inspector N. D. B. Attanayake, Sub Inspectors R. K. Ratnayake, H. K. E. Harshaka, S. P. D. Nishantha, WSI G. N. Ruwan Pathirana, WPS Shereen Wansajaya, PC D. H. M. S. M. Dissanayake and WPC L. R. Nayana Gunaratne.