The cop who slings a pen

Pratima Harigunani

It looks like a routine day in the life of Mumbai’s Additional Police Commissioner. Shuttling from one meeting to another, planning for exigencies, dealing with unannounced crisis, and etching worry lines on the brows of criminals. Except of course for the fact that, Hemant Nagrale, IPS and APC, Crime for Mumbai is busy ordering for a set of pens as part of his crew’s ammunition.

Sounds strange? Here’s the Kalam-e-Ishq script behind the silent technology renaissance Mumbai police is waking up to.

Idea with an Impact

It’s a simple logic. Literacy and computer literacy are two different paradigms. And to top that there’s this issue of re-orienting human habits. Doctors, policemen or scientists, they might learn how to key in data in a PC but how practical and comfortable is that when a major part of their professional hours is consumed on field? What if a policeman on street keeps filing FIRs the normal way with a pen and paper? Only this time, the two stationery items are a bit special so that all the information inked down can be automatically captured in the system the moment the digital pen is inserted in a socket. To top that, all this well-structured information is instantaneously routed to a central repository that enables itemized crime information search and accelerates judicial action. Quite appealing if not Wow - specially for the Indian scenario where crime and judiciary and are not in a very pleasant state-of-affairs. This might have been precisely the chord that struck in Nagrale’s mind when Dhananjay V Datar, MD, Impact Systems approached him with a unique idea – More police on the street than behind it!

For Datar, being at the helm of a company that talks, walks and breathes content and information management all the time, trying new ways of taming information is not new. The idea of attempting this for a Police army was an exciting foray for him. “Though it’s easy for policeman to scribble information than using a keyboard, we are certainly losing many important information nuggets in the process. All we need to do is just structure this data in a techno-savvy way. Initially we started talks with Nasscom on this idea. Later on Impact took this application to Police Department so that the cops don’t have to undergo massive changes in their working style and yet create a fast and smooth central repository. We then proposed the idea to Anami Roy, Mumbai’s Commissioner who was open to explore this idea and gave Nagrale the charge for this. Together we went to Phali Nariman, head of technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council, TIFAC (that comes under the Department of Science and the aegis of Kapil Sibal). We presented our idea and pitched for a pilot. TIFAC approved the project. Since then there’s no looking back.”

Nagrale echoes, “Computers are not new for the Department but noting of FIRs, Investigation reports and Spot Panchnamas were hand-written for years together. We liked the idea proposed by Datar as it not only handles storage problems but also issues on duplication, advertent and inadvertent mistakes, legibility, etc”

The jog so far

The Digital Pen project is divided into three phases with three police stations under each phase to be covered. The idea is to incorporate mistake rectifications and learnings in subsequent phases as the pilot moves on. TIFAC will support the demonstration bit of the technology and its application and not the complete rollout. The pilot will entail ten pages with three forms – FIR, Crime and Arrest under each phase. Implementation will happen in a parallel mode wherein police officers will ink down the FIRs the way they do normally, but with the digital pen that will simultaneously record the data on a special textured paper. First phase of the project, that covered police stations in Colaba, Nagpara and DB Mar, is over and the second one is kicking off as we speak.

For Nagrale the key result areas are simple: “Immediate knowledge of crime and criminals, actionable co-ordination across various police stations, data on frequency and type of crimes, crime-affected crimes, AOO (Area Of Operation) that will come handy in faster identification, resolution and anticipatory measures for crimes.”

An encounter with technology

The technology being used in this project cascades from its original owner Anoto, a Swiss Company that developed the concept of digital pen and paper wherein pen is used as an input mechanism thereby enabling direct transfer of data in a machine. The technology is suited for any handwriting with a level of 95 per cent accuracy. As far as languages are concerned, it handles conversions for English as of now while Datar is pursuing research possibilities for Marathi too. Impact has developed the software for this project that is in an application-ready mode. While pen is just an input media, the real technology lies in the paper. Datar explains, “It works on the X and Y co-ordinates on the special paper that captures data as strokes made by hand. The code lies in the mathematical pattern or formula behind the same. The strokes captured by the pen are put in memory that is downloaded by our software when the pen is sunk in the socket. The download is decoded and converted into an image on screen and put in a new folder. Our software is installed in the docking system to capture the binary data from the pen and then creates a PGC file. The second software subsequently, converts the PGC file on screen. After a confirmation entry from the concerned official, it is readily morphed into a PDF file. Also, we have put in a utility function that works as a tool to retrieve data in forms of reports when and as desired by the local machine.”

The files then are routed through server-client architecture after docking of data on the local machine through a transfer agent. After a particular time-period, the information moves from client to server thereby entering the Commissioner’s repository directly and ready for search functions.”

While the policeman can do the writing bit offline as he moves on the field, memory enables a storehouse of 30 A4 pages. Also, the pen uses a ball point ink that ensures that despite the online data the policeman still retains a hard copy of the FIR. The pen is an infra-red device and has 1MB input memory and an in-built camera that captures the strokes.

Looking London, Talking India

Impact Systems has tied-up with Magicomm from UK that has handles a similar project for London Police. Other precedents of its application include hospitals, Credit card systems, DHL, and a project on maps for US Army.

Will this pilot solve the much-lamented delays in judicial action for India? Nagrale answers, “We do have a member from the High Court in the committee but it would be too premature to say anything. The normal mandate is to submit a hard copy of the FIR in Court within 24 hours. In this pilot the cases are put on a central server, ideally a Commissioner’s office where any police member can access it and do specific searches like frequency of crime, criminal demographics, track record etc. In future this data might be directly downloadable in Courts for cases under investigation or trial and can be useful for both the Police and the Court.”

Money matters

Infrastructure requirements cover two pens for each police stations that would amount to around Rs10,000. The special pens though also available from companies like Nokia and Maxwell would be contract manufactured by Magicomm for this pilot. The paper is printed in Mumbai after approval from Anoto since dots determine the specifics. A five page set costs around Rs20. To sum it up, as Nagrale shares, “the initial phase has cost around Rs 25 lakh which includes hardware and software resources, pens, papers and computers.”

For Impact, TIFAC is ready to release payments for deployments. The software is already paid-for. Datar reveals that, “We have customized the application for Police and they will pay us a royalty for each pen and not on software.” Original royalty rights rest with Anoto.

Bottlenecks Huh!

On the challenge side, Nagrale candidly cites two major areas. “First, our officers are accustomed to writing regular FIRs. A little hesitation might be expected initially but practice sessions with the chosen team would address that. Another major challenge is on the area of forms. All FIR formats are designed by NCRB (national Crime Records Bureau) that have to be followed strictly and the same has been adopted in the pilot too with minor adaptations. However, we look forward to some modifications so that additional input ingredients can be woven in to structure the forms in a way that facilitates search functions.”

Datar feels that people mindset might be a concern area. “Also there might be apprehensions for a ground-level cop as to if someone is watching him via this technology. Once written, the entries can’t be undone easily as well. While exceptions for minor human errors exist, Judiciary won’t permit major replacements or alterations.”

Another probable area that pops up during the demo is the absence of a seal of authentication or official stamp on the data though the hard copy has a box for officer’s signature.

Once the pilot is over…

Next on Nagrale’s roadmap is a vision of executing the technology in all 85 police stations, “We might contemplate rolling it out everywhere once the pilot goes through.” For Datar too, imagination is the only limit, “The application can be taken ahead in healthcare departments. Health surveyors in remote villages for instance, can transfer data on a disease fast and smooth to central authorities, thereby enabling effective measures for Epidemics. Similarly, research professionals, doctors can use the pen technology to their advantage.”

So if next time you see a cop in Mumbai flourishing a ‘James Bond pocket material’ between his fingers, don’t pop out your eye balls. Just smile and scavenge your memory for that good ol’ adage – A pen is indeed, mightier than a sword!

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