E-cop aids rayong police fight crime better

Police Major General Pumira Watanapanee, commander of the Rayong police.

Spending time digging though a pile of papers to find a crime report has become a thing of the past for the police in Rayong province. Now, police in the province can find any crime record just with a click of a mouse and the required information shows up on their computer screen within a blink of an eye.

Aiming to improve their efficiency, Rayong police have adopted a new computer system that has converted their traditional police station into an electronic one.

"We've developed an electronic system called E-Cop that smoothens our work process by allowing us to send and receive documents electronically, and more importantly, search for records immediately on the computer," Rayong police commander Pol Maj Gen Pumira Watanapanee said.

The new system has converted all paper documents in the police station into a digital format. The commander said this is a key step to equip each police station with its own database for improving crime prevention.

Developed four years ago, the system is now implemented in all 16 police stations in the Rayong province and serves as an example for other provincial police forces to follow.

Pol Maj Gen Pumira said because  each police station has to feed in data about all cases into the system everyday, E-Cop allows the top police officers to get the status of crimes reported in the province on a daily basis.

 "In the past, we had to wait for an officer to collect information and send us a report every 15 days. But now, when we switch on the computer every morning, we can see the latest crime report immediately," he said.

The E-Cop system currently handles the records of about 5,000 to 6,000 cases annually.

Rayong police's information technology centre head Pol Col Jirawut Tantasri said that apart from keeping records, E-Cop system can analyse data to show the overall picture of criminal activity in the province.

"From this data, we can know what kind of crime is committed most frequently, in a specific period of time, which helps us plan better," he said.

The system is linked to the geographic-information system (GIS). Once crime data is analysed, it uses the GIS to show police officers which area has the highest crime rate.

All information, Pol Col Jirawut said, was vital to help the police

allocate manpower for better crime prevention.

To make the best use of this technology, Jirawut said, the E-Cop system is also connected to the Royal Police's Polis system, the national police database, the civil registration and the transportation database.

The information link helps the provincial police trace and track suspects as well as make more accurate  arrests.

After using the system for four years, Rayong police have found their efficiency and investigation methods have improved.

According to the Rayong police's  report, the percentage of arrests for serious crimes during the period   from October 1 last year to April 1 this year stood at 76 per cent, rising from 69 per cent during the same period a year before.

The police plans to link the E-Cop system to the provincial court for electronic document transfer.

Such document transfers could help speed up the issuing of search and arrest warrants.

      At a glance

n The new system, E-Cop. has converted all paper documents in the police station into a digital format.

n Developed four years ago, the system is now implemented in all 16 police stations in the Rayong province.

n E-Cop system can analyse data to show the overall picture of crime in the province.

n The system shows which area has the highest crime rate.

n The police plans to link E-Cop to the provincial court.