CCTNS IN KARNATAKA- EXPERIENCE SHARING

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CCTNS IN KARNATAKA- EXPERIENCE SHARING
Introduction
Crime & Criminal Network Tracking & Systems (CCTNS) has been projected
as the panacea to all ills in the Police all across the country. This emanates
from the fact that over and over again lack of accurate documentation and
its timely retrieval has raised insurmountable problems to our functioning as a
modern police force. The history of both networking the country for the police
and creation and deployment of police softwares have provided us with a
large storehouse of knowledge which if utilized as guiding principles would
ease the stress of creation, customization, deployment and sustenance of the
software to a considerable degree and make the whole process manageable.
Needless to say the whole process is extremely complex and technical in all its
dimensions.
CCTNS Project is a mission mode project of Government of India with a
funding of Rs 2000 crores under the planned head and envisages networking
of all Police Stations and Police Offices in the country and creation and
deployment of a software for the conduct of core police functions resulting in
a national database which would be dynamic in nature and would provide a
satisfactory answer to the present day requirement of split second response to
the information required on crime and criminals. The access to the
information required by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the
functional modalities of providing Citizen Centric Services would be a part of
the total package for complete transformation of the prevalent system.
It is in this backdrop that the experience of the Lead States is of immense
value, as it has the strength of both shortening the duration of the process,
raising confidence and provide a model which can be executed in a fairly fail-
safe manner. Karnataka with Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are three lead
states for the CCTNS project. The lead status provides the state the liberty to
deploy its own software or continue if it is using one, with the commitment
that the data/information in the requisite format would be made available to
the Govt. of India and the Citizen Centric services as approved by the
Planning Commission of India would eventually be integrated into the
software provided through a portal etc. For Karnataka, CCTNS and Police IT
work as one entity, each complimenting the other.

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Police IT – CCTNS
How many of us feel that qualitative communication, lack of proper
documentation and retrieval is the biggest problem with the police? If so, then
CCTNS provides the answer. With ATMs, Mobiles and SMSs, you are already in
the center of the digital world. The softwares are all around and unwittingly
you are using it. Today there is nobody who doesn’t use a software, so what’s
so great about using a police software? Still there is a difference and that can
be sorted out by the present project.
After this longish introduction, this article would navigate you through the
Karnataka Composite Model, Datacenter, Network, Anti-virus, Asset
Management Software, Police IT, Capacity Building, e-procurement, Change
Management, issues, challenges and then the conclusion.
Composite Model
The way computer projects are executed is known to all of us. The Karnataka
Composite Model of Computerisation is a need based model to create and
run the systems in perfect shape and then deploy the software on the
infrastructure and trained manpower thus created. This entails a minimum of
a skeletal data center, creation of a uniform broadband networking (no
integration issues), anti-virus and facility management services, hiring of
trainers, multipronged training- basic and application based for all end users,
specialised training for system administrators, multi organizational workforce,
ERP End to End Software Solution and above all perfect synchronization of all
activities and processes.

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Last year has been a watershed in the computerization process, as KSP went
on consistently clearing one milestone after another namely, creation of a fully
functional skeletal Data Center, Broadband networking, Anti-virus
installation through the central server, usage of customized asset
management software, creation of a team of professional System
Administrators to man all Units and e-procurement: all procured products
and services fully aligned to the requirements of final software deployment.
On the Police IT side Professional Management of Police IT, real time User
Acceptance Tests (UAT) for all the 11 modules, list of mandatory Change
Requests without which the software was not found fit to be deployed, testing
on completion of the Change Requests, setting up of 11 training centers,
training of all requisite types, pilot run for all modules, deployment of 4
modules and the integration of Bangalore City Traffic Police to the new
network.
Data Center
Data Center is the brain of the complete integrated system which provides all
systemic resources to the clients and also acts as an archival resource to all of
them. These basic tasks are performed by the Operating System and different
software applications in a technical framework of servers, network devices
and connectivity of these devices in a prescribed manner to deliver the
technical outputs designed. Presently the data center hosts the Police IT
application, email, web, FTP (file storage and access), training, domain
controller (for authentication and authorization), centralized antivirus and
network monitoring & helpdesk servers.
The benefits of a centralized data center management are as follows:
Management and troubleshooting of servers, serial devices, storage, and
other equipment locally or remotely, through a single administrative
interface.
Reduce system and network downtime by enabling immediate access
to failed resources - Centralized data center control provides efficient
management and maintenance processes, using fewer IT resources.
Enhanced system security
Provide visibility to daily operations and occurrences through a
comprehensive audit logging and reporting tools.

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Improved physical site security by allowing IT staff to work remotely
without accessing the data center physically.
Karnataka State Police Datacenter
Network
KSP’s existing network of 2 Mbps aggregation bandwidth, 64 Kbps
connectivity of units with the Data Center and 56 Kbps dial up connections for
the Police Stations and other remote locations had become archaic and could
not handle a software of this nature. The network has since been upgraded,
BSNL being the vendor with Trimax providing the Network Management
Services (NMS) on behalf of the vendor for the MPLS part. KSP has the only
full broadband network owned by any police force in the country. It is a
combination of MPLS and VPNoBB and thus provides value for money and
right bandwidth requirement for all the locations connected to this network.
All VPNoBB end up in a LAN of around five computers and the MPLS nodes
end up in LANs of 20 to 200 computers. On the bandwidth side the State
Police Data Center has an aggregation bandwidth of 10 Mbps, 39 locations
have 2 Mbps MPLS leased line connections and 1400 locations are connected
on VPNoBB 512 Kbps bandwidth. The Data Center is also provided with 4
Mbps Internet leased line which is distributed to 150 locations across the state.

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The general network is an intranet and no internet access is allowed as per the
policy guidelines.
Karnataka State Police Network Architecture
Karnataka State Police Network Architecture
A network is worth the performance it delivers. The performance’s ultimate
benchmark for the end users is that he should never feel that he is on a
network. The ease of work should be that of a standalone computer with
sufficient RAM for the nature of work assigned. To deliver this level of ease to
the end user, total control of the network is a must which can only be possible
through fixed IP. As it had negative commercial ramifications for BSNL, fixed
IP was agreed upon for all the 1400 locations only after series of long and
arduous discussions. BSNL dynamic IP by default is by far the biggest firewall
in the whole network. BSNL treats VPNoBB as landline connections and the
complaint registration, escalation and resolution follows the same path. This
system is unacceptable in such a critical network. Different systems of network
maintenance and complaint resolution is being discussed presently so that a
satisfactory solution is reached. 13 of the 1400 locations have not been
connected because of technical reasons, CDMA or 3G might provide an
answer to that. Full and complete network in its entirety is the final
destination.
VPNoBB
VPNoBB

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Anti-virus
When I took charge of the present assignment, a big army of viruses
welcomed me on one machine after another, inclusive of servers. The priority
to be given to Anti-virus installations and its management did not require
much thought. Today we have nearly covered the whole state and the
software is installed and managed through our central severs. The benefits
have been a virus free network, better bandwidth availability, secured data
communication and protection against spamming. Another software slowly
changing the way we work and plan is the asset management software. The
software has been customized to our requirements.
Asset Management Software
The Asset Management Software provides for monitoring Networking
hardware and health of the systems. Once integrated with the Centralised
Domain Controllers it can be used for network user activities. The Vendor
Management to enforce the Service Level Agreements has become very easy
because of this software. The customized reports generated out of this
software helps Unit Officers to devise strategies for providing better quality of
service. Facilities Management Services is complimented by this software.
Police IT
With the precursors being broadly over, the ERP Solution deployment is the
most critical task. Police IT is a comprehensive ERP system providing seamless
integration to the day to day operations of the Police. Police IT in its
conceptualization, creation and roll out would have a pioneering impact in
the way the Police in India would go digital in the days to come. The basic
features of this software are that, it is based on a centralized architecture, is
bilingual (both in English and Kannada) works on a workflow design and has
a role based access.
The Police IT software application has been divided into 12 modules. These
modules take care of the workflow within the concerned module and across
modules so that at the end of the day it is one integrated software. The core
functions of Police has three modules namely, Crime, Law & Order and
Traffic. The Administration side has another three modules namely Finance,
Administration and Stores. Armed, Motor Transport and Training provide the
ancillary support and the technical modules are the Wireless and the FSL. All

end-user tasks are finally divided into 64 roles. The software in all has 519
screens and 406 reports.
Overlaid on these 11 modules, the Management Information System would
provide us the best ways to use the data bases which gets
usage of this software. MIS will be the value addition to this software. The
modalities of the SRS for the MIS module is being worked out and this would
be last of the modules to be rolled out. The completion of the 11 modules was
being awaited to initiate with the process of the creation of this module.
Software development is a very tricky issue and software not taking off is
quite normal. Prevention thus is better than cure otherwise it would become a
tryst with destiny. The legal fr
guidelines in the SLA, penal clauses, provisions for blacklisting etc.
Academically bright, professionally extremely competent team leader
necessity. A professional with demonstrated capabilities across
projects/regions/domains should be hired. He is the key to the success of the
project. All projects are leader driven and the quality of the final software is
precisely the replication of the qualities of the Project leader. A very close
monitoring on the side of the customer is a must and should not be given a go
by under any circumstance. The lack of knowledge of technology should not
user tasks are finally divided into 64 roles. The software in all has 519
Screens/Reports
provide us the best ways to use the data bases which gets created through the
awaited to initiate with the process of the creation of this module.
The legal framework should be well spelt out with clear cut
Academically bright, professionally extremely competent team leader
. A professional with demonstrated capabilities across
regions/domains should be hired. He is the key to the success of the
side of the customer is a must and should not be given a go
under any circumstance. The lack of knowledge of technology should not
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user tasks are finally divided into 64 roles. The software in all has 519
created through the
awaited to initiate with the process of the creation of this module.
amework should be well spelt out with clear cut
Academically bright, professionally extremely competent team leader is a
. A professional with demonstrated capabilities across
regions/domains should be hired. He is the key to the success of the
side of the customer is a must and should not be given a go
under any circumstance. The lack of knowledge of technology should not

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be used as alibi to give up the responsibility which falls squarely on the
shoulders of the Unit Officer who is assigned with this task.
A good leader needs an equally competent team to deliver the world to you
in the form of a software. Every member of the development team necessarily
have to be cleared by the department on fixed parameters laid down. The
team should be co located at the office of the SCRB or any other unit which
eases out the issues of command and control and communication issues are
also ironed out pretty smoothly. There can be a direct interaction with the
development team if need be, if co located. The transfer of instructions over
different languages, physical locations and contexts may add a dimension
which might affect the quality of the software which shows up only after a
much later stage in a very complicated manner.
Creation of truthful Software Requirement Specification is the first and most
important building block of software creation. Real time User Acceptance
Tests at the end of the software development cycle provides customer the
comfort that he is not in for a surprise. Software creation need not be a moon
mission. Handling of Change Requests have to be done in professional manner
which is a via media between the large number of demands of the end users
and Vendors effort to keep it to the lowest. Being functional with ease has
been our guiding principle. The Vendor is to finally deliver the blueprint of the
Roll Out, Capacity Building and Handholding and execute all these till the
satisfaction of the last end user.
Capacity Building
In the contextual professional parlance, training is the process of imparting
knowledge as skill sets to match the skill related gap which the trainee
experiences in performance of his technical tasks. Capacity Building is the
overarching umbrella of which training is the major component. The level of
computer training in the Police Training Institutions is not at par is to state the
obvious. Quality output should be the only goal of all the training imparted.
The broad solution to all our training needs would be creating the right
curriculum in the basic courses comprising of General Computers and
Software Application training and conducting refresher courses at regular
intervals to keep the officers and men abreast with the upgraded versions of
the software and technological acquisitions of the department of which they
are owners and the users.

As time is the issue and the generation already out of training institutions
need to run the systems, one time concerted effort to have at least all main
end users trained to meet the
In Karnataka around 12,000 officers and men ought to be trained this year.
We are racing against time to meet the deadline. The training imparted
presently can be broadly divided into:
48 hour Basic Computer Awareness Training
Police IT Application Module Based Training
Specialized Training for System Administrators
Infrastructure costs a lot
scale training needs turns out to be the hiring of quality trainers and
department providing the physical infrastructure and logistical support. The
costs come down considerably and the dep
training. This model of training also entails content management,
and usage of computer based tutorials (C
experienced Master Trainer by the training vendor with
of the complete training
Training Management System
Master Trainer should be done with utmost care with all skill sets clearly spelt
out and the selection team should be competent enough to make a fair
judgement based on neatly defined selection process.
As the SPs provide the backbone to the Police System
Administrators do to the
end users trained to meet the immediate job requirements is th
presently can be broadly divided into:
48 hour Basic Computer Awareness Training
Application Module Based Training
Specialized Training for System Administrators
Infrastructure costs a lot to the Vendor, so the ideal business model for large
turns out to be the hiring of quality trainers and
providing the physical infrastructure and logistical support. The
costs come down considerably and the department is in complete control of
This model of training also entails content management,
and usage of computer based tutorials (CBTs), appointment of one
experienced Master Trainer by the training vendor with overall responsi
of the complete training, up gradation of skills of trainers
Training Management System to provide the right support
rainer should be done with utmost care with all skill sets clearly spelt
judgement based on neatly defined selection process.
As the SPs provide the backbone to the Police System, so
do to the network. With the deployment of all modules,
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is the need of hour.
the Vendor, so the ideal business model for large
turns out to be the hiring of quality trainers and the
providing the physical infrastructure and logistical support. The
is in complete control of
This model of training also entails content management, creation
appointment of one
overall responsibility
tion of skills of trainers, software and
to provide the right support. Selection of
rainer should be done with utmost care with all skill sets clearly spelt
so do the System
With the deployment of all modules,

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complete functioning would move on to the network. A professional group of
System Administrators is a necessity. With this in mind 75 police personnel
have been trained after taking necessary Govt. approvals. The training
process starts with online entrance test for the candidates at the SCRB,
interview, customized need based training, MCSE and the last phase being
CCNA. All 75 police personnel have already been certified with MCSE.
Globally accepted certifications provide validation to our knowledge and
skills. The CCNA training would start shortly. Today Karnataka State Police
boasts of 75 MCSE professionals on its rolls, might be the highest in any Govt.
Dept/ Organization across the country.
Planning is our forte and execution is our nightmare. Project histories are
replete with such instances. The most meticulously planned/created detailed
blueprint and its rigorous implementation does the magic. Execution of the
Training Plan means the establishment of the infrastructure, identification of
in house training resources, hiring of professional trainers, training of trainers in
Police IT by Wipro Ltd, deployment of the trainers, nominating one officer as
in charge for each of the training centers and creation of a training calendar.
These tasks can be further broken down into activities for easy
implementation.
The other important softwares which are transforming the mechanics of
official functioning are e-Procurement, GPS based Automatic Vehicle
Location, e-Beat, Recruitment, GIS based Crime Analysis & Reporting Engine,
Bangalore City Traffic Police’s usage of Blackberry for fine collection and City
Based Video Surveillance which is used both for regulation and enforcement,
with different cameras taking care of the two requirements. A feed of these
cameras is also available on the Bangalore City Traffic Police website.
e-Procurement
e-Procurement portal of the Government of Karnataka was opted for in
place of the Police IT’s e-tendering last year as our application was not ready.
As large number of Govt. departments were already using the software for
over a year, so we were not likely to encounter any problems. The software
seemed to have reasonably stabilized. HP was to provide handholding
support which added to our comfort levels. All tenders above Rs 10 lakhs, as
per policy decision, could be tendered through e-Procurement. This has been
hugely successful and this has taken stress out of the system of procurement.
DG&IGP has decided that tenders above Rs 1 Lakh should also be moved on

the e-tendering process and from
care of our complete procurement process.
Change Management
If all these were to happen without a murmur from all concerned and
seamlessly between all stakeholders this country would have be
computerized long time back. The
can be treated just as an
picture right here. Change management would metamorphose the whole
system from what it is, to wh
Management Plan covering all dimensions of the issue, execut
straightaway, may be drawn immediately and put into action. This would
take care of the major bottlenecks and
time of the software, when even minor hiccups take a long time to be
resolved.
Issues
Understandably issues would plague us
structure for smooth resolution of issues
complete resolution and timelines are given due importance.
would be of vital importance to all
tendering process and from June 2010 onwards e-tendering would take
care of our complete procurement process.
Change Management
seamlessly between all stakeholders this country would have be
computerized long time back. The real story starts at this juncture,
as an introduction. Change management come
to what it is intended to be. A full fledged
Management Plan covering all dimensions of the issue, execut
take care of the major bottlenecks and considerably cut down
of the software, when even minor hiccups take a long time to be
Understandably issues would plague us throughout this complex process
smooth resolution of issues should be put in place where
complete resolution and timelines are given due importance.
vital importance to all States and UTs are as follows:
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tendering would take
seamlessly between all stakeholders this country would have been fully
at this juncture, the rest
introduction. Change management comes into the
at it is intended to be. A full fledged Change
Management Plan covering all dimensions of the issue, executable
considerably cut down deployment
of the software, when even minor hiccups take a long time to be
throughout this complex process. A
should be put in place where
complete resolution and timelines are given due importance. The issues that
States and UTs are as follows:

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Training of S-PMC by C-PMC. This would bring down the learning time
considerably.
Regular flow of information between the two.
Timelines cannot be extended as data/information is readily available.
Knowledge of local language both by Consultants and Vendors is
preferable.
Language of imparting training? Importance of vernacular does not
need any emphasis.
Customization process for the application software testing should be
clearly spelt out before the process starts.
Synchronisation of all activities and processes- networking, software
creation/customization, training, physical infrastructure etc.
Maintenance of the infrastructure created- its perfect functioning is the
key to success.
Main bottlenecks are the officers-main target group for training, special
training program for officers. Non technical inputs like change
management equally important. The battle has to be won at the
mental level first.
Can laptops with extra battery be used in power shortage areas?
Only licensed software should be used otherwise it would lead to major
embarrassment and legal complications cannot be ruled out.
Visits by Delhi team would help in maintaining the quality and required
corrections can be done sooner than later.
Functional and sustainable training model- which remains viable even
after the completion of the project and
Most successful mission mode project can be used as a model.
Challenges
The biggest challenge which we face today is at the level of attitudes. It is
surprising but true. With positive attitudinal changes everything would fall in
line and there would be ease in the learning process. For the rightful initiation
of the process, first you have to be a practitioner yourself. If you change, the
world changes. Let’s not join the clan which delivers lectures on the efficacy of
the computer systems even without sparingly using it.
The challenges are broadly similar and every state is likely to go through the
same process. A robust network with the required network security, data

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center consolidation and management, data sharing with other departments
databases are the basic challenges. These are easier said than done. We have
faced huge problems in the migration of HRMS database from the Govt. of
Karnataka servers and with customization requirements as well, the issue
becomes complex manifold. Data Migration from CCIS should be up-to-date
and complete with data integrity. Data digitization wherever required can be
attended as a part of the same process. The professional benchmarking and
certification for every task/activity/process would increase end-users trust in
the system. At the end of the day it is a human network.
The personnel training has to be in a fully networked digital atmosphere and
then moving on to the application straightway making this as the only
functional software and system. So far, all software applications in the Police
have meant duplication. Training at the scale required would happen if the
infrastructure is created of that level, all components correctly mapped and
execution precise. On this would run the Basic and Application courses for over
12,000 end users across the state.
At the end of software development cycle is the roll out and which is the
biggest challenge as well. Roll out is the process of installation, initial usage of
the software till it is stabilized and the end user becomes completely
conversant. A detailed plan for phased roll out synchronizing with all other
inputs is in final stages of preparation. Handholding should be preferably
done by the software developer. If there is no choice one can fall back on any
other agency or the officials of the department who have gained experience
while working with the software development agency during the software
development period. The initial roll out should be done in a controlled
atmosphere and should be done in a phased manner consolidating the gains
of the earlier phases.
Conclusion
The successful completion of this project would take the Police to a much
higher level of efficiency, near total transparency, all mechanical work would
become redundant, more human resources would be available for core tasks,
better investigation, qualitative change in planning, split second
communication, perfect documentation/retrieval, no alibi as the application is
role based, need based passage of information on the website/press/
individuals and tracking of incidents/facts/details would be flawless. This is
round the corner, all of us have to make it happen.

CCTNS IN KARNATAKA- EXPERIENCE SHARING

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