Karnataka to set up innovation centre to better policing in cities

The Karnataka Government is working on an innovation centre within the police department to develop customised solutions to modern policing challenges as cities evolve. The centre will function as an in-house research and problem-solving unit, instead of relying entirely on ready-made systems developed elsewhere, a senior police officer said.

The proposed Karnataka Urban Policing Innovation Centre (KUPIC) was discussed at a review meeting attended by Home Minister Priyank Kharge, senior police officers and members of expert advisory groups last month. The initiative comes as Bengaluru and other cities face increasingly complex policing demands, from traffic and public-space management to changing crime patterns and the need to process large volumes of information.

“Our cities are continuously expanding and evolving. The policing system must modernise accordingly,” he said. The centre will be covering different aspects of policing, including women and child safety, cybercrime, narcotics, criminal surveillance, investigation and improving conviction rates, deployment of personnel, human-resource management and police welfare.

It will be primarily research-based and data-driven, making continuous innovation part of the department’s functioning, an officer said. The structure and functioning of the centre are being worked out and are likely to be finalised in the next one or two months, he said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (West) Vamsi Krishna, who was part of the meeting, said the centre would essentially serve as a research think tank within the police department – identifying problems faced by the force, studying them, developing possible solutions and testing and refining them.

“We know our problems better than anyone else. If we can find solutions for ourselves, it will be more suitable for us, instead of taking an off-the-shelf solution which may not completely satisfy the problem we are looking at,” he said.

The focus will not be limited to technology. Existing policing processes could also be studied to see how they can be made more efficient. This could include police duties or processes such as passport verification, deployment of personnel and security arrangements.

On the technology front, the centre could examine improvements to existing systems, including surveillance cameras, and explore new technologies that could address specific policing requirements. For specific projects, the police could collaborate with research institutions, technology experts, CSR partners and other agencies, Krishna said.

Such partnerships could provide funding, technical expertise or research support, while the police would identify the problem and work towards a solution suited to its operational requirements, he added. “Every problem is a little unique.

What works in one area may not necessarily be the solution for a problem in a different area. Every problem requires a different approach, and there is scope to find solutions accordingly,” a senior officer said. Rather than treating innovation as a one-time exercise or adopting generic solutions, the proposed centre is intended to make research, data and continuous innovation part of everyday policing and policy-making.

The centre is yet to be formally established. Its structure, including its organisation, nature of partnerships and the mechanism through which projects will be taken up and tested, is currently being worked out. Officials expect the framework to take another one or two months to finalise.