Telangana: Lack of unified crime forum causing backlog

Hyderabad: In crime fighting it’s important that all branches pool information. A unified crime forum, state officials say, is the need of the hour. 

In the absence of such a unified data base, Telangana State finds it difficult to deal with cases that involve cross border criminals. In the past year there have been numerous cases of criminals coming into the state with the aim of committing an offence. Cases of missing children and women and unidentified bodies would be solved much quicker if there was communication with surrounding states. Currently, each state has its own functional reporting system consisting of fingerprinting, DNA, missing and unidentified profiles, but the same data is inaccessible to other law enforcement agencies. 

Speaking on the matter, Swati Lakra, inspector general of police, (women safety), said, “In the case of missing children our Bharosa centre has taken the initiative to contact the national Ministry for Women and Children for their database. By doing so, profiles can be matched and there is a high possibility of missing cases being solved.”

Officials at the Telangana State Fingerprinting Department stress the importance of collaborating data sets. The department has taken the initiative to combine the data and profiles from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in a bid to create a unified system. 

Dr Venkanna, head of the Hyderabad CLUES team, said, “It would be beneficial for investigating officers to have a data set or profiles that they may connect with. But such a system requires strict accountability on the part of all investigators, as such a system will host sensitive information.”