A resource centre was set up in the Thane Rural Commissionerate on Thursday morning in the presence of senior police officers to better equip the police with investigation techniques for online crimes.
Thane Rural Police officers said that the need for the initiative was felt due to the rapid increase of cyber crimes in the commissionerate and the State.
“Cyber crime is a very serious issue that needs to be effectively tackled. The centre is needed because of rampant crimes all over the State, especially in the Thane Rural area and the Konkan region, for which technical training is required. This is an initiative to combat all kinds of online crimes against women and children,” Additional Superintendent of Police (Thane Rural) Atul Kulkarni said.
The centre, inaugurated on Thursday at the office of the Sub Divisional Police Officer, Bhayander division, is equipped with a library of case studies and experts to provide technical support for crime analysis. It was set up in collaboration with the International Justice Mission, an non-government organisation that works in the fields of human rights and law enforcement.
The centre will provide mentoring to police officers. It will soon have a software that will centralise data on sex-trafficking cases, which will only be available at the centre.
Special Inspector General of Police (Konkan Range) Nawal Bajaj said, “This resource centre will serve as a nerve centre for all sex-trafficking cases handled by anti-human trafficking units and local police stations in the Konkan region and a space where data related to trafficking will be documented for analytical and reporting purposes.”
Melissa Walavalkar, director of justice solutions, IJM said, “The system itself feels the need to establish a space that will serve as a resource hub to enable focused investigations of cyber-enabled crimes. Data management and analysis of both the crime and the criminals is crucial if we have to crack down on networks.”