DailyPost 715
DIGITAL READINESS OF THE INDIAN POLICE
With the nature of Cyber Crime cases as the Cosmos variety close on the heels of WannaCry and Petya attacks, leading the temporary closure of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, things are discomforting. The Cyber Security scenario gets more complicated by the day with no predictability. Inside the Police functioning needs to change to seamless digital levels for efficiency and for having a meaningful interaction with the digital world. The million dollar question is of Digital Readiness.
Do we want to be digital ready? If yes, what are the modalities? Does it happen because we think in unison and acceptability becomes easier or it has to be done in the command organization style. Both models have been successful in different cases. The results are directly proportional to we owning the initiative fully, a mindset issue. The mindset change will happen, if this effort is not treated as an add on. It’s not be treated as complimentary or a supplementary system but that system should become the main system itself.
Standards and uniformity sorts out lots of issue, more so in the digital mode. The best way out is to create a Blueprint. Blueprint in both thought and operation, frozen in time. This blueprint has to be created by Police Officers, who have the vision of both policing & technology & have an immense understanding of both the organization and ecosystem. Humungous changes cannot happen in the vacuum. The team creating this document would be of Police digital practitioners, who have proven track record to deliver. The consultancy companies need to be kept away lest they will make vision documents & concept papers which cannot be implemented.
The right way to begin is to have a digital audit of what that has been created and use it optimally. That would in itself be an uphill task. That brings digital discipline into the system. In all such areas only digital systems would be used. Otherwise, transition becomes a permanent system. If the only system for a particular task is a digital system, then there is no choice. Horizontal & vertical extension would happen ending up in digital readiness.
FAILURE TO REACH THE REQUIRED DIGITAL READINESS LEVEL IS AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS.
Sanjay Sahay