Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS)
Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS)
Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) is a plan scheme conceived in the light of experience of a non-plan scheme namely - Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA). CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of Govt. of India. CCTNS aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing through adopting of principle of e-Governance and creation of a nationwide networking infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled-state-of-the-art tracking system around 'Investigation of crime and detection of criminals'. An allocation of Rs. 2000 crores has been made for CCTNS Project. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the project on 19.06.2009.
Background of Police Systems in India
Several initiatives have been introduced in the past to leverage IT in police functioning. Some of these initiatives include centrally initiated programs such as the NCRB-led CCIS (Crime and Criminals Information System) and CIPA (Common Integrated Police Application), and State-led initiatives such as e-COPS (in Andhra Pradesh), Police IT (in Karnataka), Thana Tracking System (in West Bengal), CAARUS (in Tamil Nadu) and HD IITS (in Gujarat).
CRIME AND CRIMINAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (CCIS) (1995-2004)
NCRB started CCIS in the year 1995, wherein State police headquarters and district headquarters were covered under this project. CCIS was primarily an initiative to create crime- and criminals-related database that can be used for crime monitoring by monitoring agencies such as National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), State Crime Records Bureaus (SCRBx) and District Crime Records Bureaus (DCRBx) and to facilitate statistical analysis of crime and criminals related information with the States and monitoring agencies. CCIS was originally built on Unix OS and Ingres database, but has since been ported to Windows platform. A total of 594 computer systems, along with 11 additional computers were purchased from M/s HCL and ICIM. The Integrated Investigation Forms (IIFs) were designed in consultation with the representatives of the State Police. Data Entry activity under the project commenced in early 1995. Four versions of CCIS software were released during 1995 to 1999. Due to Y2K problem in 2000, platform was migrated from the UNIX/INGRES to the Window/SQL. The upgraded computers were installed at 740 locations in the country from May 2000 to January, 2001. The first version 2K.1 of new Window based application software was released in July 2000. Second version 2K.2 was released in May 2001. CCIS ML01 (Multilingual (Hindi/English) version was released in September, 2002.
CCIS data is used for publishing online reports such as Missing Persons report and is also used as the basis for online query facilities that are available through the NCRB website. In addition, it is also used by NCRB to publish an annual nation-wide Crime Report. CCIS focuses exclusively in Crime and Criminals information and does not address the other aspects of Police functioning.
Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) (2004-2009)
The Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) was initiated after CCIS in the year 2004 by NCRB, which was built on client-server architecture on a NIC Linux platform using Java and Postgres SQL database. Benefits realized from CIPA include the ability to enter registration (FIR) details into the system and print out copies and the ability to create and manage police station registers on the system, etc.
CIPA was a multilingual application to automate the processes (workflow) at primary sources of data itself e.g. Police Station and to build a crime & criminal Information system based on CrPC. It provides an efficient way of organizing crime records for generating queries/reports and crime analysis for decision support.
CIPA contains functionality for Registration of FIR, investigation of the case and prosecution process. It also maintains the database of Hardcore Criminals, Habitual offenders and organized gangs.
It was felt, however, that a standalone application couldn't provide the enhanced outcomes in the areas of Crime Investigation and Criminals Detection that are necessary. And for this reason, MHA has decided to launch the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) program.
CCTNS has been implemented in a way where the States and UTs are playing a major role. CCTNS has been implemented in alignment with the NeGP principle of "centralized planning and de-centralized implementation". MHA and NCRB are playing a key role in planning the program in collaboration with the Police leadership within States, in the development of a few core components and in monitoring and reviewing the program. It is, however, the States and UTs drives the planning and implementation at the State level. The role of the Centre (MHA and NCRB) focuses primarily around planning, providing the Core Application Software (CAS) (to be configured, customized, enhanced and deployed in States. States drives the implementation at the state level and have continued to own the system after deployment. The implementation of CCTNS has taken an "integrated service delivery" approach rather than that of procurement of hardware and software. The central feature of CCTNS implementation at the State level is the "bundling of services" concept. According to this, each States selected one System Integrator (SI) who is the single point of contact for the State for all the components of CCTNS. These components include the application (the changes made to the core application provided by MHA), hardware, communications infrastructure, associated services such as Capacity Building and Handholding, etc.
The objectives of the Scheme can broadly be listed as follows:
- Make the Police functioning citizen friendly and more transparent by automating the functioning of Police Stations.
- Improve delivery of citizen-centric services through effective usage of ICT.
- Provide the Investigating Officers of the Civil Police with tools, technology and information to facilitate investigation of crime and detection of criminals.
- Improve Police functioning in various other areas such as Law and Order, Traffic Management etc.
- Facilitate Interaction and sharing of Information among Police Stations, Districts, State/UT headquarters and other Police Agencies.
- Assist senior Police Officers in better management of Police Force
- Keep track of the progress of Cases, including in Courts
- Reduce manual and redundant Records keeping
Under the CCTNS Project, as per CCEA note approx. 14,000 Police Stations throughout the country had been proposed to be automated beside 6000 higher offices in police hierarchy e.g. Circles, Sub-Divisions, Districts, Range, Zones, Police Headquarters, SCRBx including scientific and technical organizations having databases required for providing assistance and information for investigation and other purposes e.g. Finger Print Bureaux, Forensic Labs etc.
The impact of the police subject being sensitive, a consultative and a bottom-up approach has to be adopted in designing the MMP impacting the following stakeholders:
- Citizens/ Citizens groups
- MHA/NCRB
- State Police department
- External Departments of the State such as Courts, Passport Office, Transport Department, Hospitals etc.
- Non-Government/Private sector organizations
The following are the expected benefits envisaged from successful implementation of the CCTNS:
- Enhanced tools for investigation.
- Centralized crime and criminal information repository along with the criminal images and fingerprints with advanced search capabilities.
- Enhanced ability to analyze crime patterns and/ or modus operandi
- Enhanced ability to analyze road incidents and other accidents.
- Faster turnaround time for the analysis results (criminal and traffic) to reach the officers on the field.
- Reduced workload for the police stations back-office activities such as preparation of regular and ad-hoc reports and station records management.
- A collaborative knowledge-oriented environment where knowledge is shared across different regions and units.
- Better co-ordination and communication with external stakeholders through implementation of electronic information exchange systems.
- Standardized means of capturing the crime and criminal data across the police stations in the country.
- Faster and easier access to crime and criminal information across the country in a manner amenable for trend and pattern analysis.
- Enhanced ability to detect crime patterns through modus operandi across the States/UTs and communicate to the state police departments for aiding in crime prevention.
- The ability to respond faster and with greater accuracy to inquiries from the parliament, citizens and citizens groups; and to RTI queries.
- Easy and low-cost scalability of crime and criminal systems in the future.
- Multiple channels to access services from police.
- Simplified process for registering petitions.
- Simplified process for accessing general services such as requests for certificates, verifications, and permissions.
- Simplified process and accurate means of tracking the progress of the case during trials.
- Simplified and accurate access to view/report unclaimed/recovered vehicles and property.
- Simplified process and channel for grievance registration.
- Improved relationship management for victims and witnesses.
- Faster and assured response from police to any emergency calls for assistance.
- Seamless integration with police systems for better citizen service delivery and improved law enforcement.
- Quick exchange of accurate information with the police department.
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