Nova Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 AHMEDABAD: A woman recently walked into the Ahmedabad police's crime branch headquarters to complain about some plainclothes cops who were blackmailing her after catching her in a compromising position with her boyfriend. She had already given them gold ornaments worth Rs 50,000. Officials smelt a rat and zeroed in on fraudsters known to pose as policemen in Odhav, the area where the woman lived. The men were caught and the ornaments returned. The speedy detection was possible because of software developed by a police constable who has not even graduated and holds a diploma in - of all things - diesel engine mechanics. Dilip Thakor, 37, has developed 'Pinak' - a search engine tailor-made to combat crime. All the cops did was type in 'Odhav' and 'fake police'. Pinak immediately threw up a long list of suspects and the woman easily picked out the culprits. The prolific constable has developed almost a dozen software that have helped detect at least 200 crimes so far. However, only four or five of his applications are in the public domain. The rest are classified and have been used to track among others hardened terrorists. Not surprisingly, Thakor's bosses are all praise for him. "We would have paid huge amounts to get the same software from private firms. But he has made our job easy," says additional director general of police, Ashish Bhatia. Interestingly, Thakor was not even interested in computers when he was first introduced to the world of digital code. The son of a retired police constable, he was deputed at the armoury in Mehsana in 1998. "The then superintendent of police was surprised by my concentration," he recalls. "He told me to become proficient in computers." Thakor took the advice to heart and soon specialized in developing applications that could help his fellow-policemen do their job better. For instance, 'Pinak' contains records of 32,000 history-sheeters in Ahmedabad and is being constantly updated. Another of his brainchild 'Amarbail' tracks criminals out on bail while 'Eklavya' contains details of eight lakh vehicles in Ahmedabad which makes the task of recovering stolen vehicles easier. Considering his penchant for software development, would he consider taking it up as a full-time career? "Not really," he says with a shy smile. "Policing is in my genes." Software objective Pinak: Collation of details about history-sheeters helps in crime detection and prevention Eklavya: Vehicle registration and details about owners Amarbail: Details about court cases and legal status of criminals active in Gujarat Saarthi: Licence numbers of all vehicle owners with criminal records, if any http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-constable-who-develops-software-to-nab-crooks/articleshow/18325317.cms going above and beyond and making a difference. :hatsoff:
Crookbond Posted February 5, 2013 Posted February 5, 2013 It seems he writes most of this scripts in MS Access and MS Excel. MS Access is used for data storage while Excel is used for number crunching. He has developed many software including a Vehicle Search Number software (Eklavya - V).
Crookbond Posted February 5, 2013 Posted February 5, 2013 With the help of 'Eklavya-V', a software slated to be brought into operation from February 5, the city police will be able to easily get all the information about the vehicles seized by them. Using this software, police will be able to send messages about such vehicles to the Crime Branch, which will subsequently SMS the details to the concerned policeman. "If a policeman detains a vehicle and he wants details about it, he can message the vehicle registration number to the Crime Branch, which will SMS him details about the owner of the vehicle, its engine number; whether it belongs to the person who is driving it or is it a stolen one, within a few seconds," Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Himanshu Shukla said. "The cell number of the policeman who has detained a certain vehicle and the cell number to which he SMSes the registration number of a particular vehicle will be grouped and he can initiate action against the person on the spot itself," he said. "The cell numbers of all police personnel will be entered in one group so that they can avail the services easily," he said, adding the software had become mandatory following spurt in crime using stolen vehicles and fake vehicle registration numbers. "Eklavya-V will become operational from February 5," the officer said, adding that they were confident about its operational success. Earlier, the Crime Branch had introduced Programme for Identification and Arrest of Criminals (PINAC) to assist city police in identifying and arresting criminals by creating their database. Both the softwares are the brainchild of Dilip Singh Thakor, a police constable with the Crime Branch. http://www.business-standard.com/generalnews/news/software-to-help-ahmedabad-cops-get-infoseized-vehicles/117690/ Really awesome stuff!
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