more-in With the areas on the city outskirts and in the Visakhapatnam Agency becoming increasingly crime-prone, the District Police have launched a real time visitor monitoring system (VMS) to monitor the movement of offenders closely. In Visakhapatnam district, four areas—Anakapalle, Paderu, Araku and Narsipatnam—have been identified as crime-prone ones. Well-connected with the road and rail network, the places with a lot of lodges, hotels and internet facility are becoming a safe haven for criminals to take shelter. “The VMS has been installed in almost all the lodges and hotels in Anakapalle, Paderu and Araku. It will be shortly installed in Narsipatnam too,” said Rural Superintendent of Police Rahul Dev Sharma. How it works Explaining about the new technology, the SP said that the VMS installed in the hotels and lodges had been connected to the Central Command Centre of the district police online. “The moment a visitors check in a hotel or a lodge, their photographs and other details such as Aadhaar card number or driving licence ID will be uploaded and those can be accessed from the Central Command Centre. The server is connected to the database. The moment the details match with a person with crime history, the visitor is put under surveillance,” said the SP. This has helped the District Police monitor the movement of criminals involved in extortions, ganja smuggling and left wing extremism, he added. Visible impact The police launched the e-beat system a year ago to monitor regular offenders, suspect-sheeters and rowdy-sheeters. “It has started yielding results as the crime rate has gone down by 20%,” the SP said. In the district there are about 640 suspect sheet holders and around 183 rowdy-sheeters. Under the e-beat system, a constable or an inspector visits the area or the house of suspect-sheeters and take a selfie on their cellphone or official IPad to certify that the offender was present at home. “This also gives a transparency and accountability to the e-beat system,” said the SP. As per the records, the property offences has gone down to 95 from the 245 last year. The ganja smuggling cases has also dropped by 20 %, said the SP. In Anakapalle rural the number of e-beat is one, in Anakapalle town area it is 11, Narsipatnam six, Yellamanchili three and Nakapalli three. “We get updates on the whereabouts of regular offenders daily and that is how we have been able to keep and tab on them,” added Mr. Sharma.

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