Bengaluru cops bet on best for smarter policing

Bengaluru: Faced with mounting threats to law and order and rising crime rates, the Bengaluru City Police have proposed to tap into the city’s elite educational institutions and startups to launch a budget-neutral think tank and innovation hub called the Urban Policing Innovation Cell (UPIC).

The cell envisages tying up with the city’s flagship academic institutions such as IISc, NLSIU, NIMHANS and various tech startups to tackle aggravating traffic congestion, escalating cybercrime, misinformation, and the growing drug menace.

The cell will also feed off the existing capacities like Command and Control Centre, Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, CCTV networks, CEN stations and Traffic Management Centres. 

A senior police official, who didn't want to be named, told DH, "We will establish a knowledge repository and initiate academic partnerships over the next six months. UPIC is expected to be fully operational within one and a half years."

The cell will be headed by the Commissioner of Police.

Tackling evolving policing challenges

The initiative comes against the backdrop of a realisation that traditional manpower-heavy policing models are insufficient to address the evolving policing challenges. 

“Frequent transfers of officers result in their best practices in achieving better conviction rates not getting institutionalised and are therefore lost. It is here that the proposed cell can help in institutionalising best practices and ensuring their swift use in critical circumstances,” the officer said.

The officer explained that the cell seeks to address cases related to vulnerability of women, children, and senior citizens to domestic violence. “Other cases related to online exploitation and trafficking — necessitating a focused, victim-sensitive approach combining prevention, rapid response, trauma-informed support, and long-term rehabilitation — is what will drive the purpose of such an initiative," he added.

The official noted that Bengaluru’s robust technology ecosystem and smart-city infrastructure offer a unique opportunity to incubate solutions that enhance preventive and predictive policing.

“We are focusing on the evolving challenges of urban policing — whether it is reducing response time to incidents, meeting the rising expectations of citizens, or analysing social-media narratives that shape perceptions and influence public order. In several fast-growing areas, especially those with new real-estate developments, we are witnessing an increase in property related offences, investment frauds, forgery, cheating, and the use of fake documentation,” he said.

The officer further explained that a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. “Only a customised, geography-specific and domain-specific strategy can enable investigating officers to understand micro-level issues within each locality. This, in turn, strengthens evidence-based policing and enhances the quality of investigations through better evidence collection and documentation—ultimately leading to higher conviction rates,” the officer explained.