Police IT Ecosystem of Karnataka State Police
Sanjay Sahay, Additional Director General of Karnataka Police, had been extremely busy in responding to many
requests across the country about sharing his experiences of implementing Police IT in Karnataka. As he was
coming out of one such high profile conference on Police IT in India, Sahay was satisfied with the progress and
achievement in implementing Police IT in the state under his leadership. He could achieve implementation
despite very high resource constraints. Peeping through the window of his official car while returning home, he
reflected on the challenges that he had faced during the journey and what his next career steps would be. He had
the option of getting back to his routine policing career. He could also spend the rest of his illustrious career in
finding innovative ways of introducing technology to policing in India. He also wondered what role he should play
to work out an effective response to emerging threats of cyber-crime.
Karnataka Police was able to achieve a completely functional police IT ecosystem with the main components of
ERP software, networking, data centre and capacity building before the onset of the Government of India's
flagship Police IT project namely Crime & Criminal Tracking Network and Systems.
CRIME & CRIMINAL TRACKING NETWORK AND SYSTEMS (CCTNS)
CCTNS was a Government of India sponsored project for creating a comprehensive and integrated system for
effective policing through e-Governance. In 2009, the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai triggered the conceptualisation of
the CCTNS project. A need was felt to digitally connect all the police stations through the centralisation of crime
records. CCTNS aimed to create an online system for tracking crimes by integrating nearly 15,000 police stations
across the country. It wanted to use Information Technology (IT) in the investigation and documentation of crimes
through computerised FIR registration, investigation and prosecution at the police-station level. It also wanted to
create a central database with research and analysis facilities. Such a centralised database would enable data
sharing among police stations and police headquarters for crime investigation and other policing activities.
(Source: Office record, Karnataka State Crime Record Bureau)
Implementation of CCTNS involved provisioning of hardware, software, network connectivity, training and data
digitalisation of data of over 15,000 police stations and 5,000 higher police offices across India. The project was
expected to be completed by March, 2012. However, it got delayed in most of the sates of India. Kamataka was
among the states that were significantly ahead of most of the other states in implementing CCTNS.
The National Crime Records Bureau was responsible for the implementation of the project at the centre and the
State Crime Records Bureau coordinated it at the state level. Sahay was the head of the Karnataka State Crime
Record Bureau.
SANJAY SAHAY
Sahay was a senior police officer from the 1989 batch of the Indian Police Service (IPS). He had held a number of
positions during his professional career. These assignments included Chief of Police in three districts, Deputy
Inspector General of Police (DIG) in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), DIG in Finance, Inspector
General (IG) of Eastern Range (Karnataka) and IG of the Internal Security department. He had held positions of
strategic importance as Additional Commissioner of Police in Bengaluru City. He was assigned the task of being
the Chief of the Police Computerisation project. He also headed the Police Communication and State Crime
Records Bureau (SCRB). These roles held strategic importance for the state police in the emerging environment.
Owing to the dual responsibilities of SCRB and Police Computer Wing (PCW) during the period 2009 to 2011 and
later in 2014, SCRB and PCW complemented each other in the project implementation phase.
He was also happy to recollect his contribution as Chief of Recruitment and Selection for the Kosovo police service
and Deputy/Acting Regional Commander at Wau in Sudan under the umbrella of the UN Peacekeeping forces.
He was responsible for implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and the Police IT project for
Kamataka State Police and had led the CCTNS project since its inception in 2008 till nearly the end of the Bid
Process for the selection of a System Integrator (SI) in September 2011 besides single handedly creating all the
professional documentation pertaining to the project
In 2014 he was assigned the responsibility of the Police Computer Wing as Additional Director General of Police.
He continued the agenda of comprehensive computerisation of the Karnataka State Police, stabilisation of
functioning of Police ERP software and its enhancement. He was also responsible for the CCTNS project,
upgradation and maintenance of the statewide broadband networking and Data Centre, creation of a Disaster
Recovery Center and increasing the use of Police IT functionalities till the last user.
Sahay was known for his caring yet very demanding style of management. One of the officers in the state said:
"He is very caring. We are able to express all our difficulties to him and he always responds well to them. Yet, he is
very focussed on the task and very demanding. He knows what he is looking for from his team. The progress in
the project owes a lot to his leadership style."
Another senior officer in the field stated:
"Despite an extremely busy routine, I spend adequate time on the Police IT project issues whenever needed.
Though I do not report to him, I follow his instructions completely. He is my senior and is doing a great job for the
project of national importance."
IMPLEMENTING THE PROJECT
Karnataka was one of the states to implement CCTNS along with Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. This
was possible due to the progress of the Police IT project prior to initiating CCTNS in the country. The Police IT
project was conceptualised in the State in the year 2000.
The advanced state status provided Karnataka the freedom to deploy its own software. The State could also
commit to the Centre that crime data of the state would be made available to the Government of India in the
requisite format. The State also promised that Citizen Centric services would be finally integrated into the
software of the national portal
Police IT Phase
The State Police was required to upgrade the existing State Data Centre (SDC), ensuring that the network was in
place to link police stations and offices, keeping the system free of viruses, asset management software to
monitor networking hardware and health of the system. deployment of ERP, capacity development and e-
procurement. People, processes and technology were the three prime elements of the implementation of a
project like Police IT in a large state.
The project started with the technology component which was the development of the Police IT ERP solution.
Kamataka Police appointed a well-known IT company of India as a vendor in the year 2004. According to a senior
police officer of the state:
"The capabilities of the vendor did not match the requirements of the project. Internal human resourcs
capabilities were developed to guide the vendor help deliver the project. Karnataka trained 75 police staff as
System Administrators. These people also played a key role in implementing the Polics IT project in subsequent
stages."
Another senior official stated:
"One of the main challenges of outsourcing to companies pertains to staffing by these companies. There are
frequent changes in the project team owing to the turnover of people in these companies. Further, they appoint
very capable teams till the time of seeking the project to make presentations and negotiation with the client
organisation. However, the capability of the team is not the same when they implement the project, oncs they get
the work."
A pilot project was undertaken in Tumakuru District in the year 2008. The district was selected owing to its
proximity to Bengaluru (State Capital) and better communication facilities. The enthusiasm for implementing the
pilot project was shared by the Chief of the District Police at that time. The software was tested for a few months
at a stretch in 36 police stations, 14 circle offices, 6 sub-divisional police offices and the district police office of
Tumakuru. The pilot made the officials realise that decentralised architecture was not suitable to upscale the pilot
throughout the state.
Sahay takes over as the Chief of Police IT Project
Sahay took over as the Chief of State Police IT in January 2009. After taking over the project he realised that
networking and data centre capabilities had to be completely transformed to meet the requirements of
operationalising and professionally running the software. To implement it, the state was expected to have System
Integration Competencies. System integration tasks included: a) hardware procurement and installation, b)
software
customisation and deployment, c) data digitisation and migration, and d) training of personnel.
Sahay decided to adopt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) a centralised architecture, to integrate the day-today operations of the state police. The vendor was instructed to make the necessary changes in the software.
Software Creation
Special software was to be developed for Police IT. Unlike most of the other such projects, the specifications for
software development were finalised centrally. When asked by the case author regarding the need to get the
specifications from the end-user, one of the senior police officials in the state stated:
"If I were to define my needs, it would have taken a long time owing to my extremely busy field duties. Further, I
might not have comprehended the entire field requirement for reports. Mr. Sahay carries rich field experience. We
all have very high respect for his professionalism in whatever he does. It is better that he and his office decides the
specifications for software."
Sahay stated:
"Creation of truthful Software Requirement Specification is the first and most important building block of
software creation. I relied on real-time user acceptance tests. At the end of the software development cycle, such
tests provide customer the comfort that he is not in for a surprise. Being functional with ease has been our guiding
principle."
He added:
"The vendor has to finally deliver the blueprint for roll out, capacity building and handholding and execute all
these till the satisfaction of the last end user."
Ranganath, Head Constable, who was intensely involved in the project stated:
"Ours is the only ERP solution in the Governmental sector in India. There are 12 modules, 64 end-user roles, 522
screens and 417 reports. It handles three core functions - Crime, Law and Order and Traffic. It also supports three
key activitiss - Administration, Finanos and Stores. By the year 2016, all 1015 police stations of Karnataka were
live on Polics IT.
"(Exhibit 1)
Sahay added:
"For ICT to be successful in policing, it has to first get into general administration."
State Data Centre
The State Data Centre (SDC) of Karnataka was planned in the year 2010 to be cost effective through the careful
procurement of components. The SDC hosted the Police IT application, email, web, file storage and access,
training, domain controller, centralised anti-virus and network monitoring and helpdesk servers. Sahay said:
"The existing skeletal was not adequate to meet the requirements of deploying and operationalising Polics IT ERP
software. I decided to create a new Data Centre. It was
necessary for this SDC to mest all emerging needs of Police IT and likely CCTNS. CCTNS was being talked about in
the country in those days. However, addressing the needs of CCTNS would have cost us more than the available
funds of nearly INR 25 million with us. We decided to adopt a modular approach and started SDC with an initial
investment of only INR 25 million. The modular approach allowed us to add components in SDC as we
implemented different modules of the project."
The centralised architecture was initially tested in three districts in the year 2010 due to the availability of the
necessary hardware and network there. This phase further suggested improvements in certain software that were
incorporated as a priority by the vendor.
Network
Statewide Police IT required upgradation of the network to provide 2 Mbps aggregation capacity. However, the
state police had a network that provided a bandwidth of 56 KBPS to police stations and 64 KBPS to police officers.
In the year 2009 it was decided to undertake a new project of Karnataka State Police Wide Area Network
(KSPWAN). The KSPWAN aimed at linking the police station network with higher police officers. A separate
internet lease line of 8 MBPS was also undertaken at the same time.
Karnataka Police was the only state police that had its own full broadband network. It provided flexibility in
ensuring adequate bandwidth at all locations with value for money. Sahay stated:
"A network is worth the performancs it delivers. To deliver the ease of use to the end user, total control of the
network is a must which is possible with fixed IP. As it had negative commercial ramifications for BSNL, fixed IP
was agreed upon for all the 1400 locations after a series of long and arduous discussions."
Anti-Virus
Regarding the anti-virus, Sahay stated:
"When I took charge of the current assignment, a big army of viruses welcomed me on one machine after another,
inclusive of servers. We installed centralised anti-virus software on our server. This provides the advantage of a
virus free network, better bandwidth availability, secure data communication, and protection against spamming."
e-Procurement
The Police IT project adopted the Government of Karnataka's portal for e-procurement. All tenders above INR 1
million were processed through e-tendering. Sahay stated:
"We had to get many procurement contracts finalised. The Government's e-procurement system was already
functioning well. We took help of an outside agency for using this system. Such a transparent system helped in
procurement without much problem."
The State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) decided to adopt only licensed software to avoid any embarrassment and
legal implications.
Managing Stakeholders and Capacity Development
The centralised implementation of the project had an impact on the success of the project. The project team was
headed by one of the senior most officers of Karnataka police. Upon enquiry. a head of district police stated:
"It is good that we receive orders from Mr. Sahay's office. We are bound to follow his orders.
He is our very senior officer."
Yet it was challenging to get people to learn how to use of Police IT. Sahay stated:
"It would have been very slow and expensive to train state polics personnel by any external expert agency. I
decided to develop a team of experts internally. I looked for people at the lower level who were well qualified and
capable.
Given the socio-economic conditions in the stats, many well-qualified and capable people do join the police
department at the level of constable (lowest level of hierarchy in polics). I could identify many constables and
attracted them to my department. They have been very passionate in the implementation process."
One of the constables who had joined SCRB stated:
"When SCRB approached me, I felt proud to get associated with the project. It was a recognition of my
competence. At the level of Constable, I was not able to prous my potential.
In my current role, I also get the opportunity to train senior polics officials. I have gained visibility in the
department which I could have never got had I not joined this department."
A senior offer stated:
"The main bottlenecks in implementing such large projects are the officers. They are the main targets for training.
There were special training programmes for officers in the stats. They were also provided non-technical inputs like
change management."
Sahay stated:
"The biggest challenge which we face today is at the level of attitude. With positive attitudinal changes everything
falls in line. It creates ease of learning. It requires the leader to believe in the ability of the team and be the change
himself. It is futile to deliver lectures on the efficacy of the computer systems without using it oneself."
Integration of legacy software with the new system had to be worked out. There were seven large legacy systems
that were operating in the state
CCTNS Phase
The Government of India decided to implement CCTNS in 2011. The Central Government granted INR 700 million
to Karnataka for this ambitious national project. Sahay said:
"CCTNS is a complex project as there are multiple central and state agencies involved in it. Police, Law & Order is
a state subject and systems across states are not uniform."
He added:
"The main objective of CCTNS is to help the polics track criminal antecedente and undertaking sharp analysis by
using a national database. However, sach state has its own system with unique software and hardware. It is
essential but challenging to integrats these varied systems in different states."
To implement CCTNS, a gap analysis of existing software was undertaken internally. CCTNS operates on Core
Application Software (CAS). The Government of India allowed Karnataka to continue with the Police IT software
due to its advanced state. The existing Police IT software was made CAS compliant with 118 modifications.
The State police decided to appoint another well-know Global IT company in India as System Integrator (SI). The
vendor did the knowledge transfer to SI in two months. An internal team of highly trained police officials (most of
them were from the lower level of the organisational structure) helped in this process.
The experience with SI was similar to that with the vendor during the Police IT phase. Again, the internal team
played a pivotal role to overcome the inadequacies of SI. The Government constituted a State Project Monitoring
Unit (SPMU) to monitor the progress of CCTNS.
WHAT LIES AHEAD
The State had digitalised 925 police stations, including 108 in the city. These police stations had adopted digitised
policing under the CCTNS project. Other departments were keen to use the information effectively. The city
Regional Passport Office was the first in the country to use the police database to verify the antecedents of
passport applicants. It would enable quick police verification of applicants and would also make it possible to
examine the criminal records of applicants in other states.
This was part of the larger plan to integrate the databases of the External Affairs Ministry with the Home
Ministry's Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) throughout the country. Since Karnataka had a
mature police database - Police IT-the project pilot had come to Bengaluru.
The Core Application Software (CAS) for this was provided by NCRB. Many versions of CAS have been released
owing to bugs in the software. Every new release of CAS meant more customising and testing by SCRB. This
further led to significant time and resource investment by SCRBs.
The integration of Police IT with the national CCTNS project would remain a challenge owing to the slow
digitalisation of data and the lack of infrastructure and trained people in some of the states. Each of the states
was supposed to have a Data Centre and different police stations across the state needed to be connected to the
network. Any update in a police station had to be routed to the centralised server. This connectivity was yet to be
achieved in many states. (Source: DNA)
References:
DNA: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-all-police-stations-to-have-criminal-tracking-networkingservice-soon-2119597 accessed on August 29, 2015.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_Criminal_Tracking_Network_and_Systems, accessed on
April 27, 2016.
http://www.ndtv.com/bangalore-news/pm-modi-to-review-digital-policing-at-cubbon-park-station-inbengaluru-1200165 accessed on April 27, 2016.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20150724/news/64817185_1_passport-office-passport- verificationps-karthigeyan accessed on April 27, 2016.