'Indian police force needs skills upgrade'

With the bulk of the Indian police force personnel being just matriculates, much needs to be done to hone up their skills to address today's security challenges, experts maintain.

"Almost 90 percent of police force in India consists of constabulary. Mostly, they have only matriculation as educational qualification. Most never even have worked on computers," said S.N. Pradhan, additional director general, CID.

"Therefore, there are institutional issues in terms of inducting technologies in policing and making it easily adaptable for the police force," added Pradhan, speaking at "Secure Cities 2014" a two-day exposition on secure cities here.

The event was organised jointly by a public-private initiative called Security Watch India (SWI).

To keep India's citizens and its industry secure from a hostile neighborhood, India has set aside $80 billion dollars for the purchase of military equipment over this decade, SWI said.

The organisers maintain that another $20 billion dollars could be spent for homeland security over a year to train and equip India's police forces to battle the threat of terror.

Speaking of the security requirements emerging in the current environment, Delhi Special Commissioner of Police Muktesh Chander said: "There is a requirement for more number of technical manpower in police for effective implementation of technology in police forces. There may be a need for a chief technology officer kind of a post in every police organization."

With a large number of users relying on laptops, smart phones and mobile computing devices for business, securing such data is a big challenge, the symposium felt.

There was also a simultaneous exposition by major technology companies like Panasonic, Motorola, Dell, NEC, Indian Eye Security and Eye Watch.