<nettime> Indian Police's ICT blues... (fwd)

["Patrice Riemens" <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

(In Holland, there have been a string of scandals recently with laptops
belonging to hi-ranking cops and top public prosecutors ending up in the
wrong hands with sensitive info on them. Maybe the Jarkhand rules are not
that ill-advised...)


bwo Fred Noronha/Bytesforall list


Laptop rules irk top cops in Jharkhand
Indo-Asian News Service

Ranchi, May 5 (IANS) Top cops in Jharkhand have been provided with
laptops, in a move towards hi-tech policing, but the rules that came
along with them have irked the police personnel, who consider them
derogatory.

The police headquarters here recently distributed laptops to IPS
officers of the state, but with a letter of "dos and don'ts"
emphasising that the machines be used only for official purposes.

"Do not consider it a toy or an entertainment thing. It has been
provided to be used as an efficiency tool," the letter said.

These regulations have irked many cops.

"We know why laptops are provided to us. In my view, there is no need
to explain the dos and don'ts," an Inspector General of Police (IG)
told IANS.

"We are not children to be informed like this," he remarked.

Echoing his sentiments, another senior IPS official said: "Computers
and laptops are there in every house now. We are told it is not a toy.
The letter has questioned our general knowledge and sensitivity about
technology."

The letter further stated: "Do not take away the laptop when you are
transferred. Pass the laptop to your successor so that the data and
other information of department could be used by the successor."

However, despite the computerisation drive, data collection is still
done manually and is poorly maintained in the offices of IPS
personnel.





#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net