Descriptive review of Crime and Criminal

tracking network system (CCTNS)

Siddharth Shankar (08BM8045)&

Anand Saurabh (08BM8047)

Abstract:

The paper aims to introduce to the reader the

new data warehousing system that is being set

up by the ministry of home affairs (MHA)

namely: Crime and criminal tracking network

and system (CCTNS).The paper describes

current Indian police system. It looks at various

IT based application being used at police

organisation across India. The paper gives

module wise descriptive analysis of CCTNS.

CCTNS aims at creating an integrated system for

enhancing effectiveness of policing by the

adoption of principle of e-Governance. It will

create nationwide networking infrastructure for

IT enabled tracking system for investigation and

detection of crime and criminals.

Introduction:

The current governance of the Indian police

force is based on the Police Act of 1861. The

structure in the police force is strictly

hierarchical. Decision making in Indian police

system is mainly centralized with high rank

officers. The police come under a State subject

as per the constitution. The main

responsibilities of police force in India is 1)

maintaining routine law and order 2) controlling

riot 3) investigating crime 4) protecting assets of

state and people 5) VIP protection and 6) Traffic

control. [13]

Currently Indian police does not have any

advanced data-warehousing capabilities. Use of

information technology in processing and day to

day activities at police head-quarters is not

optimal. Some state police is having good

official website but they provide limited

functions. For example, Mumbai police has an

official web site www.mumbaipolice.org.

Information about all applications for issue of

various licenses, passport, verification, missing

items and persons , information about traffic

related issues, passport status information,

daily arrested persons and crime press,

important event and notices, weather updates

and know your law etc are available. Similarly

Delhi police website also contains information

regarding crime control, Safety Tips, missing

personal etc.[14]

Figure: Delhi police website: showing various

modules [15]

There are some IT based application developed

by various police organisation and state police.

Appendix-1 gives detail of various application

developed by National Crime and Record

Bureau (NCRB). [16]

Similar applications are also has been

developed and being used by many state police.

In short, there is lot of scope of improvement in

adoption of Information technologies based

solution to improve the efficiency and

effectiveness of Indian police system.

Under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt.

of India various project has been started. Crime

and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems

(CCTNS) is one of them. As per National Crime

record Bureau (NCRB), this project 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”[1]

Approximately 14,000 Police Stations

throughout the country has been proposed to

be automated under the CCTNS Project by

2012.

Following are the objectives of CCTNS as per

NCRB official site. [1]

1. Make the functioning of police more

transparent and citizen friendly.

2. Improve delivery of various services by

effective usage of ICT.

3. Provide tools, technology and information to

help investigation of crime and detection of

criminals.

4. Improve functioning of Law and Order, Traffic

Management.

5. Facilitate sharing of Information among all

Police Agencies.

6. Provide assistance to senior Police Officers in

doing better management of Police Force.

7. Monitor the progress of various police

activities and court cases.

8. Reduce manual Records keeping at various

police agencies.

Literature Survey:

CCTNS is currently under implementation phase

and expected to be completed by 2012. The

NCRB (National Crime and Records Bureau) site

provides with introduction and objective of

CCTNS. It gives a detailed timeline of initiation

and progress of CCTNS. NCRB also gives various

links to tenders, Expression of interests,

guidelines and specification documents. [1]

The Functional Requirement Specifications (FRS)

documents contain details about the modules

of CCTNS. The various modules include the

following: registration module, Investigation

module, Prosecution module, search module,

citizen interface module, Navigation module

and configuration module.

The registration module deals with registration

of the complaint by the citizens, logging and

generation of unique ID for every complaint,

assigning of personnel for a specific complaint

and tracking the complaint to closure.

The investigation module is where the details

of the crime details, chance finger prints and

investigation details are captured. The arrest

details are also captured using this module.

The prosecution module is designed to act as a

conduit of police department with the judicial

system. This module helps the user track the

status of cases currently in progress in the

courts.

The search module enables the police to

retrieve/update information about the cases.

The information based on crime, accused

details etc can be obtained through simple

querying.

The configuration module comprises of

functionalities required for the administration

to help maintain the system on day to day basis.

The configuration module helps in

providing data and functionalities to police staff

as per their roles.

The navigation Module describes the interface

the system provides to the staff once they log

into the system. It also provides various options

present to each one of them.

Finally the Citizen Interface Module provides a

point of contact for the interaction between

citizens and police. It increases the efficiency

and cuts the red tape for day to day need of

citizens interacting with police.

The capacity building guideline document

provides states with framework on which the

states could plan their basic activities. It also

provides guideline for initiatives for which

funding would be made available in during

FY09-10.The objective is to empower the direct

users and other stakeholders to use it best

possible manner leading to effectiveness of

entire system.

Above all, national news channels and ministry

of home affairs are providing updates on CCTNS

on regular basis. Cabinet Committee on

Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the

project and an allocation of Rs. 2000 corers has

been made and Expression of Interest (EOS) has

been invited from various the Software

developers. [1]

Descriptive Analysis of Modules

Following are the modules of CCTNS. :-

1. Registration Module

2. Investigation Module

3. Prosecution Module

4. Search Module

5. Citizen interface Module

6. Navigation Module

7. Configuration Module

We will be discussing them one by one.

Registration Module:

The registration module consists of the login

page, General Service petition, prepare

response, property information, register

complaint, complete registration and close

complaint.

The login page can be accessed by people from

multiple roles from the police force like SHO, IO,

DO, SW (Station writer), CC (Court constable)

and DEO (Data entry operator). Based on the

role of the person logging in, the access is

restricted to the relevant pages.

The general service petition page is used to

enter data when citizen reaches a police station

to file a request. When the details of the

request are entered into the system by police

personnel with requisite access a unique

number is generated for the petition.

When a request is filed in the system a response

has to be generated for it. Whenever general

petitions are filed by the citizens the required

response is generated by sending generation of

reports like no object certificates and then the

request is sent to relevant authorities whose

response is required.

Property information page enables the police

capture data on Unclaimed/Abandoned

property. The data which are captured are

Number of the property, details, acts, section

code, seizure place, date/time, witness details

and other information. The page allows the user

to capture details about property type,

automobiles and human parts (like kidneys

eyes). The system also tries to associate the

missing property with a case and tries to solve

the case. There is also an option to search by

various parameters.

Register complaint page helps the police to

capture information when the citizens (or police

themselves) come to them regarding incidents

like theft, robbery, murder or other disputes.

The user assigns data related to section and

acts. The information like occurrence place,

reported place, registration place, duty officer

and investigation officer are entered manually.

The information about the witness, victim and

the accused are also captured here. The system

captures other case specific details.

The complete registration page enables the

user to create FIR (First information reports),

zero FIR, NCR (Non cognizable reports),

complaint report and final report of juvenile

crime. The system helps in exporting the

reports into pdf formats for easy

comprehension.

The close complaint page enables the user to

close cases which do not go to investigation

stage. Here the final report is generated

immediately after complaint is registered and

the case is closed.

Prosecution Module:

The prosecution module consists of submit trial

date, split case, alert senior officers and order

reinvestigation. The prosecution module acts as

conduit between the police and the courts

where the case is happening.

The submit trial date update capture the data

on the activities on the trial day. The details

about the activities that happened in the court

are updated. Some of the information are the

number of witnesses who appeared, number

who did not etc. The data on next trial date is

also captured. Some of the data include the

next trial date, collect evidence, alert witness,

summons and warrants to be executed, bail

petition, to appeal or not etc.

Split case page enable the user to split cases

logically when accused have not been

apprehended or the case is happening in

different courts. When a particular accused is

not apprehending while the rest of them have

been, then the system enables a user to create

a new FIR for the person not apprehended. This

enables the police to prosecute the people who

have been caught.

Alert and MIS for senior officers are to inform

the senior police officials about the cases that

are getting prosecuted in the courts. Usually the

alerts are for cases which are grave in nature

and have to be informed. The alert is sounded

when the senior police official logs into his

system.

Order for reinvestigation comes into effect

when the courts order the same. The user

enters the data like name of court, court order

detail, court order date, court order receive

date and investigating officer details. The

system then informs the investigating officer

when he logs into the system.

Citizen Interface module:

The citizen interface module acts as an interface

between the citizens and police. It also helps in

increasing the efficiency by cutting the red tape

involved. The module consists of Register

complaints and receives acknowledgement,

conduct a query, apply/ seek status of NOC and

provide feedback to the police.

The register complaint helps in registering non

emergency complaints and also gets an

acknowledgement of the same. The citizens can

also view status of the complaint and get copies

of the case documents.

The query page helps the citizens get

information from the system based on a

number of parameters. The citizens can get

data on missing persons, status of a case, stolen

property, abandoned property, crime profile of

an area, most wanted persons in an area and

information on police station trends.

The module also enables the citizens to apply

for no clearance certificates (NOC) and also

seek status for the same.

Finally the feedback page enables citizens to

give general information to the police, register

complaints against the police and also allows

citizens to contribute intelligence information

anonymously.

Search Module:

The search module enables the user to retrieve

information about cases that can be reviewed

and updated. The search module has quick

search and advanced search features. There is

also an option to save and retrieve queries.

In the quick search page, the user enters data

like FIR number, Date range, Beat area, interval

and type of case. The search gives the results

page with the option of exporting the results to

PDF or excel.

In the advanced search option the user will be

able to retrieve information based on type of

crime, accused details, property details, victim

details and modus operandi. All the options

have the feature of viewing the results either by

suspects or by cases.

Navigation Module:

The navigation module consists of the

functionalities which are available to each user

based on their role in the police force. The roles

which have been defined are IO, SHO, duty

officer (DO), station writer (SW), court

constable (CC), SSP and senior officer.

When an IO and SHO logs into the system, he

can access information related to list of cases.

Also he can view information on cases under

investigation and trial; administration related

work, calendar, and court related work.

A duty officer is responsible for entering details

about a complaint. When a duty officer logs in

to the systems he is taken to the registration

page where details like registration date, IO

name, IO code, case type, act, local act, section,

date, time, place of occurrence, direct and

distance from police station can be entered by

the duty officer.

Station writer is responsible for report writing

and data related to cases. When a station writer

logs into the system, he lands in the page with

following tabs namely: FIR number, Select area,

category, date range and

yearly/monthly/weekly. The station writer can

generate reports containing data on pending

arrests, registered cases, charge sheet, court

disposal and summons.

The court constable is responsible for duties

related to court work. When he logs into the

system he can view the court appointment

schedule tab which contains data related to

court, date of trial, FIR number, activity, and

case description. He can also view the report

summary for the categories like charge sheets,

court disposal, warrants and summons.

The SSP and senior officer can view the tasks

which are pending and status of various tasks.

He can view data related to open, closed,

reopened, and disposed cases. The senior

officer will also be able to generate reports on

various types like general service requests,

summons, warrants, registered cases and

charge sheets.

Investigation Module:

The investigation module consists of capabilities

to capture information related to crime

including crime details, chance finger print

details and investigation details. It also helps in

preparing arrest report and remand report.

In the crime details form information that are

gathered at the crime scene are entered into

the system. The information that are captured

include date, motive, victim, accused if exists,

witnesses, place of occurrence and possible

suspect gangs.

In the finger print page, the FP experts send the

reports to the police station after analysing the

crime scene. The data in the reports are

entered into the system. The date of capture,

captured by and the scanned copy of the finger

print which can be enlarged are entered into

the system.

As the investigation proceeds and more

information come into light these have to be

entered into the system. This is done through

the investigation page where new information

on witness, accused, victim, property and

motive can be updated. The user can also view

the current status of the case with options like

details collected, evidence collected, charge

sheet created and arrests made.

The module also helps the police force in

preparing the arrest report, remand

report/judicial custody report and property

seizure form. The module helps in interacting

with external agencies like forensic science lab

(FSL), finger print bureau (FPB), RTO in case of

accidents, Post mortem, hospitals, medico legal

case (MLC), excise officer and hospitals. The

module helps in preparing request forms for

each of these parties as required by the case.

The module also helps in entering the data into

the system based on the reports from the

external agencies like FSL, FPB, RTO, excise

officer, RTO, MLC and hospitals. The

information is entered into the system for each

of these categories by the user.

The module helps in preparing inquest report

and the final charge sheet for a particular case.

The module has capabilities of alerting the

senior officer and SSP with regards to the status

of the case. The case can be transferred to

another station if it does not come under its

jurisdiction. The module also helps in

maintaining checklist and alerts to finish tasks

before stipulated time.

Configuration Module:

The configuration module helps the

administration in maintaining the system on a

daily basis. The module consists of

configuration of acts/sections, additional data

elements to state acts/sections, MO/Property

type/castes/tribes Police organization,

court/FSB/FSL, templates, case specific service

levels and users.

In the configuration of acts/sections the user

can update the system with addition of new

acts and sections. The user can also delete old

acts and sections. The user should update the

act number and section number in the relevant

sections. The module also has flexibility to

update the sections based on local need which

come from individual police stations.

The user will be able to add/delete new

MO/castes/tribes/property type as per the

needs of the situation. The user enters the data

manually. The module helps in changing the

police organization structure by adding new

districts and beats. These changes take place at

the instance of local authorities. The user is able

to view/change the roles associated with a

police station using this module.

The user information can be configured by

adding a user, changing the role of a user and

resetting the password. Other information like

name, ID, role, date of enlistment, caste and

educational qualification can also be entered.

Finally the module also provides capabilities to

configure the court/FSL/FBP and templates

according the needs of the police force.

Conclusion

The current Indian police system is hierarchal

and mostly centralised and the use of Data-

warehousing and Information Technology is

limited. Police comes under the state

administration and every state have some

record keeping applications. There is an obvious

need for nationwide centralised record keeping

system using latest Information technology.

CCTNS aims at creating an integrated system for

enhancing effectiveness of policing by the

adoption of principle of e-Governance.[1] It will

create nationwide networking infrastructure for

IT enabled tracking system for investigation and

detection of crime and criminals. The

Government of India is taking CCTNS project

seriously. It has been aimed to be completed by

2012. Already an allocation of Rs. 2000 crores

has been made for CCTNS Project.

References

Link to various sites and document used in

paper are

1. http://ncrb.nic.in/CCTNS.htm

2. http://igovernment.in/site/India-to- apply-IT-enabled-US-model-security-system/

3. www.tnpolice.gov.in/pdfs/ cctns _2409.pdf

4. http://www.egovonline.net/articles- list/47/8113-cctnsconnecting-police.html

5. www.chandigarhpolice.nic.in/ TENDER/ CCTNS /Tender %20index.pdf

6. http://netindian.in/news/ 2010/03/11/0005718/chidambaram-calls-completion-cctns-2012

7. http://igovernment.in/site/wb-gearing- cctns-roll-out-37036

8. http://www.24dunia.com/english- news/shownews/0/CCTNS-project-to-enhance-crime-investigation-Chidambaram/5764664.html

9. http://e-pao.net/GP.asp? src=1..230310.mar10

10. http://www.neytri.com/tcs-infy-wipro- ibm-to-bid-for-rs-2000-cr-online-fir-project/

11. http://www.currentitmarket.net/ 2009/09/indian-it-firms-queue-up-for-criminal.html

12. http://www.mynews.in/ Chidambaram_calls_for_Completing_C

CTNS_Project_on_Schedule_N40419.html

13. www.votemumbai.org/ police reforms/.../The%20 Indian %20 Police %20 System -%20A %20Summary.pdf

14. http://www.mumbaipolice.org/

15. http://www.delhipolice.nic.in/

16. http://ncrb.nic.in/itresourcecentre.htm

APPENDIX-1

SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS DEVELOPED BY POLICE ORGANISATIONS / AGENCIES [16]

Org. ORGANISATION

SOFTWARE SCOPE ENVIRONMENT

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

CRIME IN INDIA CRIME IN INDIA, DATA ENTRY, VALIDATION, & TABLE GENERATION

WINDOWS/ACCESS

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

MOTOR VEHICLE COORDINATION SYSTEM (MVCS)

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

FORENSIC SCIENCE LABORATORY SYSTEM (FSL)

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

JAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (JMS)

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

PROSECUTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

TALASH SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/SQL/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

POLICE STATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

CULTURAL PROPERTY SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

ACR TRACKING SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

PAYROLL SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

TRAINING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

PERSONNEL INFORMATION SYSTEM

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

FIRE ARMS COORDINATION SYSTEM (FACS)

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

DOSSIER SYSTEM FOR MP POLICE

- WINDOWS/ACCESS/VISUAL BASIC

NCRB NATIONAL CRIME RECORDS BUREAU

PRISON STATISTICS SYSTEM

PRISON STATISTICS OF INDIA, DATA ENTRY, VALIDATION & REPORTS

WINDOWS/ACCESS/CLIPPER