International Community Policing Award-2009

International Community Policing Award-2009
International Community Policing Award-2009

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Asia-Pacific Information Security Leadership Achievements (ISLA) Award 2013

International award for State police

Innovative initiatives in ensuring cyber security


The "c0c0n" The International Cyber Security  and Policing Conference organised by the Kerala Police has won the Asia-Pacific Information Security Leadership Achievements (ISLA) Award 2013, for its ‘innovative and timely initiatives in ensuring cyber security.

Kerala State Police Chief Sri.K.S. Balasubramanian IPS will receive the award at the inaugural function of Cocon 2013 – an International Cyber Security Conference in Thiruvananthapuram on September 27. The award was instituted by (ISC)2 – the largest not-for-profit membership body of certified information security and software security professionals across the world.

W. Hord Tipton, executive director of (ISC)2 said, “we congratulate Kerala Police, as their passion to protect goes beyond their daily jobs. They invest their time and energy to mentor and educate those around them.”

The award comes for the police initiative to spread awareness about cyber security. The international conference, presently in its fifth consecutive year, has had more than 125 sessions on two different tracks covering four security domains.

These efforts helped the police win the award, which is meant, “to recognise the ongoing commitment by information security leaders in Asia-Pacific who have significantly enhanced the workforce by demonstrating a leadership role in an information security workforce improvement initiative, programme or project.

‘’Cocon serves as a premier international forum to highlight the importance of empowering citizens, businesses and government to improve their cyber security preparedness,


Monday, June 3, 2013

All gentlemen can be officers



If you ever had a yen for uniform and never got an opportunity to wear one, this might be your chance.

The State police are all set to raise a ‘voluntary force’ of civilians with expertise in various fields, including IT, medicine and law, to assist the law enforcement as ‘uniformed non-commissioned part time officers.’

They will be declared as Special Police Officers (SPO) under the Kerala Police Act and accorded ‘honorary Sub Inspector and Honorary Inspector ranks’ based on their ‘qualification, expertise and contribution’ to the force. Their uniform will be ‘smart and distinctive’ with shoulder badges indicating their rank.

A board of top officials will select the ‘Community Oriented Police Officers’ (COPs). After a month of basic police training, they will assist in law enforcement for a minimum 40 hours every month. Their service timings will be flexible.

Only civic minded persons who are profitably employed need apply. The police will bestow medals and promotions on those COPs who serve the force meritoriously. An Inspector General of Police (IGP) will command the force. They will be called to duty also in times of disasters and emergencies. The police will primarily recruit IT professionals to assist in cyber crime investigations, hardware engineers to maintain its computer networks, cyber security experts, lawyers to aid criminal investigation and counsel victims of crime, accountants to assist the Frauds Squad, veterinarians to support dog and mounted police units, doctors, front office managers and marine operations specialists.

Psychologists will help the police assist victims of crime, chiefly women and children, and counsel couples involved in domestic disputes. The selection process includes an entrance test, interview, medical assessment, and fitness tests and background checks. The recruits will take the Police Oath and turn out in good order for their passing out parade. The police will train them in radio procedure, report writing, crime scene management, self-defence, non-lethal use of force, traffic management, human rights, first aid, use of hand-cuffs and batons. The COPs will have no powers to arrest nor will they be deployed in police operations involving the use of force. However, they can confiscate contraband items, illicit liquor, and drugs, detain minors indulging in substance abuse, enter and search premises to save life, remove abandoned vehicles and control traffic while serving in uniform. State Police Chief Shri.K.S. Balasubramanian IPS and IGP Shri.Manoj Abraham IPS are heading the project.

‘Cyberdome’ to keep track of cybercrimes















The Home Department will set up a cyber security centre at Technopark here to monitor the Internet for divisive activities and give the law enforcement agencies a constant technological edge over cyber criminals.
The project, termed “Kerala Police Cyberdome,” is envisaged as a high-tech nodal centre for cyber security solutions and innovations. It will come up in a 5,000-sq.ft secure facility at the IT hub.
The Cyberdome will act as an online police patrol. Its officers will generate intelligence on various cyber threats in near real time and track fugitives online by monitoring their online activities, including social networking sites.
It will create a digital repository of stolen and lost vehicles and travel documents, track online payments to prevent money laundering and channelling of funds to dubious organisations and issue cyber security advisories.
A steep increase in cyber crimes has been one of the fallouts of rapid digitisation in Kerala. The State has an estimated 2.5-crore mobile phone connections, 12-lakh Internet subscribers and 30-lakh landlines. Its television density is 85 per cent, compared with the national average of 56.8.
The influence of the cyber-world on crimes reported in Kerala is on the increase. Crime-related videos and reports on the Internet have encouraged copycat crimes in the State, chiefly online advance fee frauds, dissemination of divisive ideologies among impressionable youth, cyber stalking, defamation, black mail and malicious campaigns against individuals, communities and women.
Cyber criminals who constantly update their methods have rendered most cyber-forensic tools in the police inventory obsolete. Hence, the law-enforcement agencies require to update its technology constantly to keep pace with them, senior officials say.
The police have invited various IT companies to set an example in corporate social responsibility by providing the law-enforcement agencies their latest technology free of cost or at nominal rates and experts for specific tasks.
The centre will also function as an innovation unit where new software and solutions to policing issues will be tested. It will act in tandem with the music and film industry to crack down on online piracy.
It is envisaged also as a specialised agency which will provide technical expertise to crime and anti-corruption investigators. Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, State Police Chief Shri.K.S. Balasubramanian IPS and Inspector-General of Police Shri.Manoj Abraham IPS are guiding the implementation of the scheme.