Sindh police planning to launch Pucar 15 project for better performance, timely public relief

The Sindh police is planning to launch a project named 'Police Unified Communication and Response' (Pucar 15) to resolve public issues, said Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Maqsood Memon.

Sharing details of the project with The News on Saturday, DIG Memon, who is the chief of security operations in Sindh, said PUCAR had been functioning in Punjab since July 2013, and the first such centre under this project was operationalised on October 11,2016, in Qurban Lines, Lahore, under the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA).

The Punjab police's Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre (PPIC) with value-added services has been established for the betterment of policing and capacity enhancement of law enforcers, rule of law, access to the justice system and improvement of human rights conditions in the province.

The Integrated Emergency Response System was executed through the Pucar 15 system by the PSCA after approval of the inspector general of police (IGP).

DIG Memon said that several meetings had been taken place with officials of the Punjab police and also with Sindh's IGP, major paper works had been done and they were waiting for the signing of an MoU (memorandum of understanding).

He said the existing system with challenges are 15 Police Help Line, credibility and reliability of response, uniformity in communication with helpline 15, evidence or recording of calls or retrieving the data, security of data for use in inquiries or courts, standard response mechanism, KPIs to measure the response, history of caller or identification of duplication of calls, and response strategies based upon data.

Emergency response service

DIG Memon said the objective was to develop, operate and maintain the Police Unified Emergency Call Centre in Sindh to cater for all calls from public through voice calls, and to facilitate all types of police service users for uniform and improved service delivery.

Regional- and district-based operations command centres will be developed by modifying the existing 15 call centres and connecting them with the Provincial 15 Police Emergency Call Centre at the Sindh Police Headquarters through secure Internet available 24/7.

Sindh police units will establish dedicated police emergency response units (first responders) in each police station's jurisdiction, which will be focused on responding to emergencies calls communicated to them through district operations command centres and later on by Tehsil-based centres.

Pucar will receive calls related to following situations: emergency calls which need immediate police help across the province, medical emergencies to be referred to 1122, all other types of emergencies and rescue services, and voice calls can be made through cell phones and landline numbers.

Expected result

DIG Memon said that after establishing of the project Pucar they were expecting that it would ensure 24/7 available resources for timely reception of calls, recording of all voice calls for sufficient time, unification of multiple complaints centres to one Sindh Police Emergency Call Centre, a single response to multiple complaints about the same incident, the visibility from the IGP to the SHO for respective jurisdictions, unification of all types of calls – data integration.

He added that the with the establishment of Pucar 15 Sindh, data available as evidence for complainants and courts, filtration of fake, hoax and invalid calls, monitoring of response at multiple levels would become possible at Karachi and other district centres.

Transition process

The existing workload includes the following: telephone voice services, windows workstations and software application at some places, district-based system with no record system, at places voice recording is available and estimated daily incoming calls are 8,000 to 18,000 in Sindh as it is not a primary service, computers are available at big centres, no unified or standardised system is working,

Sindh Pucar 15 will result in improvement in service, increase in demand and goodwill for the Sindh police. The expected number of calls in Karachi is 15,000 to 18,000 per day in three to six months and the expected number of calls in the rest of Sindh is about 40,000 per day. There is need to develop a commensurate response for the above need assessment.

Sindh Pucar 15 centres

DIG Memon said that unified call centres through 15 will be for all types of emergencies. Calls received through short code 15 from public for any emergency issues and for non-emergency issues or information at the Sindh Pucar 15 will be recorded and dispatched to DICs for implementation. It may also include 1122 staff for emergency integration.

DICs should have fax and scanners and SMS facilities to receive calls transferred from the Pucar 15 system deployed at Karachi. SMS service to contact the callers/complainants may be included at cost.

Emails will be received and sent through the Pucar 15 system, and monitoring of the system will be done through senior officers through dashboards at each level.

Working procedures

Service will operate 24/7 in three shifts to provide emergency services. Data and analysis will be provided to the DPO/RPO/CCPO/additional IGP operations and the IGP as required. No service outage will be ensured by providing a backup setup. Operationlisation of DIC3s will require dynamic planning and re-adjustment. Operations and HR in the DIC3 centres will be provided by regions and managed by Pucar 15 teams.

Also, each police station will be divided into beats as general area of presence of police emergency response units, and PRU deployment will be carried out in three shifts backed by police operations and investigations and units. The integration of the Vehicle Management System for visibility and response assurance, provision of handheld devices for each responding unit for data-sharing and equipment and weapons as proposed by Command PSCA will co-locate its resources for implementation of the system in an efficient manner.

The PSCA will assist in managing the Sindh Pucar 15 for various information under 15 and others for calls and data exchange.

Action plan

DIG Memon said that like in Punjab, the IGP had provided authority to the PSCA for the implementation of 15 services in Punjab. The PSCA needs to prepare requirements and procure services, infrastructure and applications for implementation. the existing system of connectivity has been managed with the districts and field offices.

All processes will be streamlined in all respects till June 30, 2020, or earlier. On a fast track basis, the system can be run after 30 days subject to the procurement process and payments. Stability will come through the repetitive adjustments in six months.

Ownership of police is a key requirement only second to political ownership. A robust communication strategy will also be part of this project for public awareness and managing the resources, making success stories and confidence building.