National Police Academy trains Odisha police to probe cyber crimes
BHUBANESWAR: The state police have roped in the national police academy (NPA) in Hyderabad to train officers of police stations in skills required to probe cyber crimes.
Three officers from NPA’s national digital crime resource and training centre (NDCRTC) started the first phase training session for 25 police officers at the newly built Cyber Complex that was inaugurated by director general of police Abhay here on Monday.
“Cyber crimes are on the rise and it is a matter of concern. Accordingly, we have to improve the professional efficiency of our personnel in dealing with such cases. The NDCRTC experts will conduct the training session for the next five days. Such training programmes will continue,” said Abhay, who was a former director of the NPA.
Official statistics said cyber crimes in Odisha saw an alarming rise in 2019 as compared to the previous year. While a total of 867 cyber crime cases were registered in the state in 2018, the figure shot to 1475 in 2019, recording around 70% rise.
Not just the police personnel, the state police have decided to arrange training programmes for judicial officers about the emerging challenges of cyber crimes and prosecution. “We have set up cyber crime prevention against women and children-cum-training laboratory at the Cyber Complex. The lab is equipped with modern tools to understand and investigate the cyber offences. Investigators and judicial officers will undergo training in regular intervals. A social media analysis cell will soon function from the Complex,” Abhay said.
Experts suggested that the government should appoint IT experts in cyber police stations to assist the police in the investigation. “Just as chartered accountants help the vigilance and economic offences wing (EOW) in probing economic frauds, the police should take the assistance of IT experts in solving cyber crimes,” senior IT professional Prashant Sahu said.
In a related development, the state’s first cyber police station that had been functioning from the Crime Branch office in Cuttack was shifted to the newly built Cyber Complex here on Thursday. However, a cyber cell will continue to function at the Crime Branch office in Cuttack to receive complaints from people. Apart from Cuttack, one cyber police station each was set up at Rourkela, Sambalpur and Berhampur. The state government had announced to establish a new cyber police station each in Bhubaneswar, Balasore and Koraput.