After Gadchiroli and Mumbai, Palghar Police became the third force in the State to link police stations through video conferencing (VC). The Connecting Palghar initiative, started on Saturday, is expected to save on time spent in travelling to the Superintendant of Police’s (SP) office for monthly reviews and other official visits.
Palghar SP Manjunath Singe, credited with driving the project, said, “We had a training session on intelligence gathering, with retired officers sharing tips. All personnel were at their postings, watching the session live through VC, while trainers at the SP’s office addressed them. There was a round of questions and answers.” The VC system connects the Palghar commissionerate through a dedicated, secure line, and was set up over several months at a cost of ₹1 crore. Funding came from State government schemes and from the State Director General of Police. Technical assistance was provided by local software engineers free of cost, officers said. Palghar Police have also used the dedicated line to link all CCTV cameras in police stations to the SP’s office, giving senior police officers access.
Mr. Singe, who holds a degree in Computer Engineering, had implemented this initiative in Gadchiroli district while posted there as SP. He took over in Palghar in 2016. “The priority for any police force should be solving people’s problems. The initiative aims at saving time lost in travelling and ensuring that issues faced by our personnel can be voiced to the top brass directly without any delay, so that they can be addressed as soon as they are reported.”
In 2017, the Mumbai Police had started a similar facility under DGP DD Padsalgikar, then the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. Mr Padsalgikar had also introduced other high-tech measures, including digitising the daily police notice, a dedicated messaging app for internal communication and bio-profiles of all personnel on a single server.