The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Police has launched the automated Police Complaints Redressal System (PCRS) in Peshawar, which aims to provide “speedy access to justice to all citizens of the province, including merged districts”.
As per details shared by KP Police, the inauguration of the new system was performed by the Inspector General of Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, who said that the new automated system is a step in the right direction for the KP police, adding that “after lengthy internal deliberations, we initiated this project to reach out to vulnerable groups, especially women, girls, youth, and minorities”.
“The people can now reach out to us through the comfort of their homes,” the IGP said.
The country director of USIP was also present during the inauguration ceremony, who, while addressing the participants said that there is an urgent need to foster trust and communication between the public and the police.
“There is an imminent need to bridge the trust deficit that exists between the public and the police and digitization of the PCRS is a step in right direction to improve the overall situation of trust deficit, provision of swift justice to the vulnerable population and molding policing approach as more citizen centric,” he said.
Through the PCRS, the public will be able to reach police through various innovative features, which include, social media integration (WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter), mobile app for the public to register and track complaints, single SMS short code for Public (8855), a toll free helpline for public (0800-004000), automated email integration, and a monitoring app for the IG, RPO and DPO offices.
All these advanced features will help the police ensure transparency in the process with live SMS updates to the complainant, digitized and paperless system, centralized system for complaint registration and redressal, integrated voice over IP based call center in CPO and an integrated chat system for the officials.
KP Police is hoping that with PCRS, the provision of justice will become a swift process for the public, and the police will have a less strenuous routine while handling these cases with the ease of moving things online.
