Mumbai: Director General of Police D.D. Padsalgikar has issued a circular instructing all police stations to stop making manual station diary entries, and instead make entries in the Crime and Criminal Tracking System (CCTNS). The circular, although being followed as an official order, has evoked mixed reactions.
The CCTNS, which went operational in September 2015, was conceived with the aim to connect all police stations in the country. Details of all cases registered are updated on the CCTNS.
The circular issued last month has directed police personnel across the State to abandon the traditional method to save time. “It has been noticed that entries of the day-to-day affairs are first made in the station diary and then updated on the CCTNS general diary. Doing the same job twice takes a lot of time,” the circular said.
It further said police personnel should directly make the entries in the CCTNS general diary and take printouts of the previous day’s entries at 12.01 a.m. every day, which should then be made part of the police station records.
However, several officers that The Hindu spoke to said in a city like Mumbai, it might be challenging to follow the new system.
“Police stations are inundated with several things at the same time, and in most cases, we first deal with the situation and then make diary entries. For example, if I am making an entry about a tree fall, and get information about a murder, I will have to keep the diary entry aside and rush to the spot. With an online system, the time of the entry will be logged. Hence, entries made after a delay of hours of the incident being reported will give the impression of laxity on our part,” a police inspector posted in western Mumbai said.
Another police inspector, who is posted in south Mumbai, said the problem is such instances of delay will be picked up by superiors and defence lawyers. “While we will have to give daily explanations for the delay to our seniors, defence lawyers will use the delay to cast aspersions on our investigation, saying we have manipulated facts. The initiative might work in rural commissionerates where the workload is lesser, but for a city like Mumbai, it will be challenging,” the officer said.
Some officers also said the move will save time and fix responsibility. “There have been instances of facts actually being manipulated in station diaries, and this will promote transparency. If the officer has not done anything wrong, they have nothing to worry about, as even superiors understand the challenges that come with being a policeman in Mumbai,” a police inspector said.