November 11, 2013, Islamabad: Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) has congratulated Jhang police for its excellent FIR Management Information System; and demanded the Federal and provincial governments to replicate it for more efficient and citizens’ friendly policing. With this system, Jhang has become the first district in Pakistan in which all FIRs are now recorded on the system; and then tracked online through multiple stages of investigation and judicial trial. The system has been prepared with a very low cost and within a very short duration of few months.
The system ensures that DPO and other senior police officers have a real time access to information about FIRs and any progress on them in terms of, among others, investigation, witnesses, arrests, recoveries, challans, remands, proclaimed offenders and their arrests, and break up of cases or crimes. It also allows quick generation of multiple types of reports, which save a lot of time, and facilitate investigations and effective oversight by officers.
Jhang police has also developed and provided online checklists for effective investigation of various types of crimes to guide investigation officers and ensure that they meet the essential requirements of good investigations. The system also enables the senior officers to quickly review the distribution of work, progress of registered cases, any weaknesses or delays, and make appropriate corrections or directions.
The performance of Jhang police in terms of establishing FIR Management Information System is highly commendable, as it amounts to significant systemic improvement. It must be acknowledges by all stakeholders; and replicated by police departments across the country. Jhang police must also keep strengthening this system, especially in terms of including features to give appropriate level or type of access to complainants, accused and even general public.
It may be noted that Jhang police has achieved in a short duration and with meager resources what a major project of the Federal Government namely PROMIS has not achieved since 2005, despite having huge resources at its disposal.