The fleet of patrolling cars of Ranchi police guarding the city can now be monitored closely for their effectiveness. Under a pilot project, all the PCR vehicles of the city will be fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) units, enabling police officials to keep a keen eye on their movements.
“This project will help us to monitor the patrolling vehicles and their effectiveness. A similar system is already being followed in bigger cities. Their positions can now be ascertained more accurately without relying on what we are told,” stated Superintendent of Police (City) Kishor Kaushal.
In absence of a hard and fast system to monitor the PCR vans, supervising officer had to depend on the information provided by the officers deployed with the vehicles. To remove this factor, a proposal to equip the PCR vans with GPS and monitor them from a central control room had been floated some nine months back.
“As of now, we only are aware of the location our patrol cars are stationed at; whether they rush to a call for help is hard to ascertain. This will enable us to monitor whether our patrol parties respond to distress calls from the public, and how swiftly and efficiently,” added the City SP.
Starting from Tuesday, five vehicles in the fleet of PCR vans have already been fitted with GPS units, informed Assistant Superintendent of Police (Hatia) Prashant Anand. These GPS enabled PCR vans will be deployed at Hinoo, Doranda, Argora and two other locations in the city.
“Based on the results we get from the pilot project, the initiative will be extended to other patrolling vehicles running in the city. If possible, Tiger Mobile and Panther Mobile, the motorcycle-ridden patrolling parties, will also be fitted with GPS units,” stated Kaushal.
The number of the patrolling vehicles will also be increased in the city, as decided in the last meeting Ranchi SSP had with his subordinates. Around 20 cars from the new fleet of vehicles allotted to Ranchi police department by state police headquarters will be deployed as patrol cars, sources said.
As of now, 12 patrol vehicles are responsible for keeping an eye on the entire city. The new patrol vehicles will also be fitted with GPS units, given the pilot project succeeds, informed police sources. New patrolling routes for these new patrol cars are being mapped by the police department.