E-Police System for Improved E-Government Services of Developing Countries

Abstract

E-government, necessity for good and corruption free nation, means by using information and communication technologies, especially internet, to achieve better government by delivering public services and processing internal works in government in a much more suitable, customer leaning and cost effective. Like other e-government related services e-police system is also an e-government related service which makes the communication process a possibility, a great success for modern era with increasing the professional efficiency for the government’s police administrations. Although E-police system is not a new and original idea in context to global scenario especially in developed countries but it is new for developing countries. Our work will definitely help the police system in making the police work more efficient through equipping the police with modern ICT solutions i.e. it aims to ensure solutions and means for the police officers that support their main activity and it will be interesting for audience in the context of law and order situation in developing countries. In our paper we present all about of an e-police system as well as its steps, challenges during implementation, its necessity etc for developing countries and the ultimate goal of this paper is to upgrade the developing countries’ police administration to world standard.

Full text

E-Police System for Improved E-Government
Services of Developing Countries
Muhammad Baqer Mollah, Kazi Reazul Islam*, Sikder Sunbeam Islam
Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Dept. of Computer Science*
International Islamic University Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada*
mbaqer@ieee.org, krislam@ryerson.ca, sikder_islam@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract—E-government, necessity for good and corruption free
nation, means by using information and communication
technologies, especially internet, to achieve better government by
delivering public services and processing internal works in
government in a much more suitable, customer leaning and cost
effective. Like other e-government related services e-police
system is also an e-government related service which makes the
communication process a possibility, a great success for modern
era with increasing the professional efficiency for the
government’s police administrations. Although E-police system is
not a new and original idea in context to global scenario
especially in developed countries but it is new for developing
countries. Our work will definitely help the police system in
making the police work more efficient through equipping the
police with modern ICT solutions i.e. it aims to ensure solutions
and means for the police officers that support their main activity
and it will be interesting for audience in the context of law and
order situation in developing countries. In our paper we present
all about of an e-police system as well as its steps, challenges
during implementation, its necessity etc for developing countries
and the ultimate goal of this paper is to upgrade the developing
countries’ police administration to world standard.
Keywords- E-government, E-government Services Internet, ICT,
WAN, Software Engineering.
I. INTRODUCTION
According to World Bank definition, “E-government refers
to the use by government agencies of information technologies
like wide area network, the internet and mobile computing that
have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses
and other arms of government” [1]. According to UNESCO
definition, “E-governance is the public sector’s use of
information and communication technologies with the aim of
improving information and service delivery, encouraging
citizen participation in the decision-making process and
making government more accountable, transparent and
effective” [2]. E-government and E-governance related services
include e-voting, e-democracy, e-information, e-consultation,
e-decision making, e-procurement, e-health, e-education, e-
banking, e-commerce, e-payment, e-tax systems etc. Like these
e-police system is also an e-government service. According to
e-government ranking released in the survey conducted by
Institute of e-Government, Waseda University, Japan, United
States of America, Singapore and Canada are top three e-
government countries amongst 34 surveyed countries [3].
E-police system is the process where police personnel need
to access information and report incidents, accidents and
crimes while out on the road and their reporting involves not
only data but also live images and pictures. The need of the
moment is thus an effective, speedy and secure system to
manage on-the-job and internal communication among the
personal. It contributes to public security as well as minimizes
all kinds of crimes. The police personal would also be able to
identify any criminals and this is possible if a database is
available for any citizens including criminals’ and innocents’
all information. For the public safety there would be record
about the wanted persons, suspected criminals’ history, wanted
cars, stolen cars, cases, news and events, contact details,
recommendations, airline information and so on. The
objectives of this work are free access of the citizens for their
queries and complain, establishing database for citizens and
police personnel, operation well despite sudden weather
changes and circumstances, online traffic supervision and so
on. The improvement of the work environment of police
officers ensures in its turn a better and quicker service to
people or citizens. The home ministry would be connected with
the several police units of the city in a fiber-optic based
metropolitan area network and a database will be setup for
warrant notices, examining the finger prints using the latest
electronic device etc. There have to be set up a ‘Third Eye’
software in the special branches of the police department so
that it helps the police supervisors to monitor crime and
criminal records. Third-Eye software is an independent
software vendor specializing in custom software application for
rich media, telecommunication and other industries [4]. There
have to be set up an electronic database and an interactive
website which will contain daily press releases, supplement,
list of top terrorists and criminals, lists of people under police
custody and people injured in road or other accidents etc. In
this paper we focus on the infrastructure of an e-police system
as well as its steps, challenges of implementation and its
necessity. For implementing the software we can use JAVA,
PHP (especially AppServer) and MySQL. There are some
features of general e-police system which are too much
essential for improved e-government services and these are
enlisting, recording and finding the cases, stolen cars, wanted
cars, general diaries, criminal histories, suspected criminals,
news, events, field reporting system and online traffic
management system, mobile or online payment service cyber
crime detection and so on.
2012 25th IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE)
978-1-4673-1433-6/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE

This paper organized as follows. In section 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
the present condition of developing countries, e-police system
for developing countries, advantages of e-police system for
developing countries, system software design for e-police
system, implementation steps, issues and challenges,
recommendations and cost analysis are described respectively
and finally we go to conclusion.
II. PRESENT CONDITION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
A. Police System and its Vision and Mission
A police system has been devised for the purpose of
preventing evils and providing benefits. In its first meaning it
protects and defends society from the dissidents, those who
decline to be bound by the general standard of conduct
accepted by the larger number of law abiding, in this sense it is
chiefly concerned with the prevention and pursuit of crime. It
has a second and more extensive meaning as applied to the
regulation of public order and enforcing good environment.
The police system of developing countries has some vision and
mission i.e. to provide service to all citizens and make a better
and safer place to live and work whilst the missions are to
upload the rules and law, to ensure safety and security of
citizen, to prevent and detect crime, to bring offends to justice
and to maintain peace and public order.
B. Police to People Ratio of Several Countries
The Police to People ratio of Bangladesh, India,
Philippines, Pakistan, Japan, New Zealand etc [5] is shown in
Table II.
TABLE I. POLICE TO PEOPLE RATIO OF SOME COUNTRIES
Serial No Country Police-People Ratio
1 Bangladesh 1:1,138
2 India 1:728
3 Philippines 1:665
4 Pakistan 1:625
5 Japan 1:563
6 New Zealand 1:416
7 Singapore 1:295
8 Malaysia 1:249
9 Thailand 1:228
10 Hong Kong 1:220
III. E-POLICE SYSTEM FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
With the onset of information and communication
revolution many developed countries developed e-police
system to make their countries world standard police
administration. E-police system is to make the police security
and safety of country’s people as well as decrease crimes in all
section of the country and also ensure free access of the
citizens to the security apparatus.
A. Overview of E-Police System
The overview of e-police system is described in this section
and figure 1 and 2 represents the block diagram representation
of our system and transferring information respectively.
This section is very important for e-police system. E-police
system can be described as following.
1) There are two parts in e-police system. First one is the
local police stations, special branches, detective branches,
prisons, traffic systems etc are interconnected as a
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) topologies and these
MAN connections are interconnected which is called Wide
Area Network (WAN) topology. Second one is the home
security department which is connected with the district
police, intelligent software, government website and electronic
database where citizens’ documents, general documents and
police personals’ documents exist.
2) The police station only can share the database but can’t
make any change and they can only send any information
about citizen and personnel.
Figure 1. The Block Diagram Representation of a part of E-police System
Client PC (Police Citizen) Internet Server PC (Home Ministry)
Figure 2. Transferring Information between Client and Server
Template name
Figure 3. Block diagram representation of fingerprint enrollment
Claimed identity
One template
Figure 4. Block diagram representation of fingerprint verification
Internet
Home Minister and
Other Departments
Divisional
Headquarters
Database
Citizen
Local Police
Stations
Database
Personnel
Mobile
Phone PCPC
Government
Interactive
Website
Name (PIN)
User Interface
System
DB
Name (PIN)
User Interface
System
DB
Feature
Extractor
Quality
Checker
Feature
Extractor
Matcher
True/False

N templates
Figure 5. Block diagram representation of fingerprint identification
3) The district police only can share the database and
provide information about citizen and personnel document.
4) Intelligent software helps the police supervisor to
monitor criminal and criminals record and sent any massage to
home security department and the intended police station
through internet or mobile phone.
5) During working on the field the police personnel can
store real-time data and still or moving images at the time of
incident about any crime done by any criminal and they can
send massage by E-mail, Short Message Service (SMS),
Multimedia Message Service (MMS) to the police divisional
headquarter and then that massage send to the home security
police for the proper action to the crime and the criminal could
be identified by the intelligent software since all the records
about him are stored in the electronic database.
6) Since the citizens can access and use the website by
free they could be able to make a diary about any criminal,
case etc. by using the government interactive website.
7) The respective police officers upload the data about
wanted persons, suspected persons, criminal history, news etc
and update timely.
8) The police department can handle all types of cases all
time using electronic database and they can also help from the
third eye software.
9) As all traffic police stations of a city are internally
connected it is easy to manage the whole traffic system as well
as to monitor the road accidents. It performs a part to lead
comfortable traffic culture by dissolving traffic jam caused by
sudden increase in vehicle volume. Here at emergency the
communication between traffic polices to traffic police
stations by Short Message services or cell phones. But if the
Wireless Sensor Networks are used the system will be
efficient.
10) As every citizen has a web account they can pay their
fines trough internet or cell phone.
11) Cyber crime detection cell detects the cyber crime
through internet.
12) To recognize a fingerprint at first features are extracted
from scanned fingerprints and they are saved into system
database and this phase is known as enrollment. If the
fingerprint is compared with stored feature of the same
fingerprint it is called fingerprint verification. But in case of
identification a sample fingerprint is compared with the entire
stored fingerprints it is called fingerprint identification [6], [7]
and [8]. The block diagram representations of fingerprint
enrollment, verification and identification are shown in figure
3, 4 and 5 respectively.
13) In our e-police system it is important feature to find out
the stolen cars. This can be happened at any moment but this
is not problem at all to find out stolen cars because the
electronic databases of the police department always store the
entire document about all vehicles of the citizens.
IV. ADVANTAGES OF E-POLICE SYSTEM FOR DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
There are some advantages of e-police system in
developing countries and these are given below.
1) Establishment of E-government: The Police to People
ratio of developing countries is not good at all, therefore, that
is not sufficient for public security and safety, that means on
the perspective of people the police personnel is too much
less, that is why the police can not handle everything always
and the general citizen feel insecure always. So the ratio
problem may be decease if the government follows the e-
police system.
2) Public Accessibility: Since e-police system is the
world standards that follow the e-technology as well as m-
technology the citizen of the country has the free accessibility,
they could make a diary about any criminal as well send any
information about any matter by e-mail or SMS but in the
normal police system.
3) Secured Data Communication: Since the whole police
system is interconnected as a Wide Area Network (WAN)
topology and this not connected to internet anyone can not
hack or access illegally.
4) Crime Reduction: It is possible to reduce any types of
crime in any section of the country where police personnel
could be able to interfere the police administration can and
handle this but in normal police system is seemingly
impossible.
5) Safety and Security Incretion: For incretion of the
country and country citizens’ safety and security any kinds of
the section our system plays an important role but if the
system is the normal police system than that is not absolutely
possible.
6) Standardization: In order to making the countries
police administration world standard the e-police system must
be essential but that is completely quite impossible by follow
the normal police system.
V. SOFTWARE DESIGN FOR E-POLICE SYSTEM
A. Methodology
If we want to develop software, we need to follow a certain
methodology in order to ensure its consistency. The entire
software is being developed in a step-by-step procedure, which
is called methodology [9].
Name (PIN)
User Interface
System
DB
Feature
Extractor
Matcher
(N matches)
Identified
or Not

System request
Change request
Figure 6. Software Development Life Cycle
B. Entity Relation Diagram and Context Diagram
An Entity Relation (E-R) diagram can express the overall
logical structure of a database graphically. The context diagram
and E-R diagram is given in figure 7 and 8 respectively.
Figure 7. E-R diagram of our system
Figure 8. The context diagram of our system
C. Data Flow Diagrams for E-police System
Data flow diagram (DFD) is concerned with understanding
the processing within an organization and the relationship those
processes. The DFD graphically illustrates movement of data
between external entities and the processes and data stores
within a system. Here some DFD levels are shown and Figure
9 and 10 represents the DFD level 1and DFD level 2
respectively.
Figure 9. Some DFD level 1 of our system
Invalid
Complain
Police Form
Complain
Form Valid complain form Valid Form Form Fill up
Complete
Invalid Form Serial
Invalid
Police ID
Complain
Test Valid Complain
Valid Police ID Received
Invalid Comp lain
Invalid
Information
Citizen Form
Information
Form Valid Information Form Valid Citizen
ID Complete
Invalid Cit izen ID
Invalid
Missing Person
Missing Form
Person
Form Missing Person Form ID Complete
I nvalid ID
Feasibility Study
(1)
Requirement
Definition (2)
Maintenance (8)
Implementation
(
7
)
System (3)
Testing (6) System Design (4)
Programming and
Coding (5)
Home security
de
p
artment
Informatio
n
IS A
Process
Send
Information
Electronic database
Citizen
Send
Police
Name
Birth
Age
Stored
ID
Profession
Police ID
Service
Name
Rank
Complai
n
Complai
n
Missing Person
Complai
n
Data entry
3
Complain form
fill-up 2
Sendin g massa ge
4
Police Information
Record
Missing Person
Information
Information Record
Stored
Validate
Complain
Form
1.1
Stop
Service
1.4
Check
Form
Serial
1.2
Deliver
service
1.5
Stop
Service
1.3
Check
Police ID
2.1
Stop
service
2.4
Check
Complain
Form
2.2
Deliver
Service
2.5
Stop
Service
2.3
Check
Police ID
3.1
Stop
Service
3.4
Check
Complain
Form
3.2
Deliver
Service
3.5
Stop
service
3.3
Validat
e
Missing
Person
Form
4.1
Stop
Service
4.4
Check
ID
4.2
Deliver
Service
4.5
Stop
Service
4.3
E-police
System
Police
Admini stratio
n
Citizen Police
Personnel
Criminal
Information Recor
d
Complain form
fill-up 1

Invalid
Criminal
Criminal Record
Record
Form Valid criminal Valid Criminal
Record ID Complete
Invalid Crim inal ID
Figure 10. Some DFD levels 2 of our system
D. Data Dictionary
Data dictionary is an organized listing for all data element
that are pertinent to the system with precise, rigorous
definitions so that both users and system analyzed to will have
a common understanding of inputs, outputs, components of
stores and event intermediate calculation.
TABLE II. DATA DICTIONARY USED IN OUR SYSTEM, POLICE TABLE
AND CITIZEN TABLE
Column name Da ta ty pe Key Nul l
User name VARCHAR (20) Primary key No
password VARCHAR (20) No
Column name Da ta ty pe Key Nul l
Id INT (10) Primary key No
Name VARCHAR (50) No
Designation VARCHAR (50) No
Rank VARCHAR (50) No
Address VARCHAR (50) No
posting VARCHAR (15) No
Column name Data type Key Key
Id INT (10) Primary key No
Name VARCHAR (50) No
Age VARCHAR (50) No
Profession VARCHAR (50) No
Address VARCHAR (50) No
Birth INT (2) No
Finger print VARCHAR (50) No
Vehicle’s
document
VARCHAR (5) No
VI. IMPLEMENTATION STEPS, CHALLENGES AND COST
In this section we describe about implementation, issues,
challenges and recommendations during implementation the e-
police system in developing countries. To develop e-police
system it is badly in needs Electronic Government Directorate
(EGD) like developed countries will be established as a cell
within Ministry of Science and Information & Communication
Technology of developing countries. To establish e-police
system Ministry of Science and Information & Communication
Technology should implement our following proposed steps.
A. Implementation Steps for E-police System
There are several steps during implementation of e-police
system and followings are the implementation steps of e-police
system.
1) Installation of Local Area Networks (LAN) at different
locations including Police stations, Central police offices,
Traffic police, Traffic monitoring station, Prisons etc.
2) Installation of Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) of
all LANs in all cities.
3) Secure Internet Access for Police stations covered in
the whole project.
4) Establishment of a Data centre for hosting of Web
applications and databases.
5) Development and implementation of internal Police
Portal for quick and focused information delivery.
6) Implementation of Public police website for citizens
and its interconnectivity with Government Portal.
7) Development and implementation of an internal police
portal, which will be accessed by Police, Prison, Traffic
offices.
8) Installation and Training on office productivity
software to Police personnel.
9) Establishment of Cyber Crime Detection Cell and
developing harmonious cyber laws/ regulatory framework as
early as possible.
10) Scanning of all previous records of all police stations,
prisons, traffic police stations etc., collecting the citizen’s data
and entry the data into databases.
11) Installation, Configuration and Training of networking
devices to Network system administrators.
12) Maintenance and Support by Vendors on Networking
Equipment likes Firewalls, IDS, switches, Network Sensors.
13) Providing helpdesk facility to citizens.
B. Issues and Challenges
As the e-police system is new in the perspective of
developing countries there are several issues and challenges
related to implementation. Followings are the challenges which
are faced during implementation of e-police system in
developing countries.
1) Inadequate Information and Communication
Technology Infrastructure within the government as well as
across the nation.
2) Inadequate access to Information and Communication
Technology by government officials, police personnel and by
citizens.
3) Lack of awareness of police personnel and citizens
about Information and Communication Technology.
4) Lack of adequate training programs in developing
countries.
5) Non acceptability of Information and Communication
Technology.
6) Lack of incentive structure for police personnel and
other government officials.
7) Inadequate Information and Communication
Technology training programs.
8) Inadequate Information and Communication
Technology trained people.
9) Lack of necessary regulatory or legal framework.
Validate
Complain
Form
5.1
Stop
Service
5.4
Check
Crimina l
ID
5.2
Deliver
Service
5.5
Stop
service
5.3

10) Inadequate human resource capacity.
11) Lack of ownership of Information and Communication
Technology systems.
12) Preparedness of local software companies.
13) Lack of reliable maintenance and sustainability of
Information and Communication Technology.
14) Lack of mother language standardization.
15) Insufficient of electricity across the developing
countries’ nation.
16) High cost and low reliability of Internet access.
17) Lack of awareness about future development.
C. Recommendations
Here we propose some recommendations and the
followings are the possible steps towards solution.
1) Building the Information and Communication
Technology infrastructure throughout the government and
across the nation.
2) Stress on awareness before Information and
Communication Technology training.
3) Creating and retaining adequate Information and
Communication Technology human recourse.
4) Providing networked computers to mid-to-lower level
police officers as well as high-level officers.
5) Creating incentive structure for usage of Information
and Communication Technology.
6) Investing in and for reliable supply of electricity.
7) Encouraging the local software companies for preparing
themselves.
8) Organizing public awareness programs on Information
and Communication Technology.
9) Giving importance to regular training.
10) Making plans for reliable maintenance.
11) Considering the issues and challenges of
interoperability and interconnectivity.
12) Updating the database regularly.
13) Appointing officers e.g. Chief Information Officer.
14) Try to extend the connectivity of internet outside the
cities.
15) Building sustainable models for e-government.
16) Standardization of mother languages.
17) Creating online access point at public places.
18) Extending connectivity outside cities.
19) Organizing public awareness programs on ICT.
20) Investing in reliable supply of electricity.
D. Cost Estimation
To complete the project it may be expensed approximately
1,323.066 US million dollar including customized software,
hardware and general software, training, maintenance etc. and
its may vary from one country to another. The cost with items
is given in table 3.
TABLE III. APPROXIMATE COST ESTIMATION
Item Costs Million Dollar
Customization of Software 0.125
Hardware and General Software 2.065
Data Entry 0.188
Training 0.500
Server and Connectivity 1,320
Maintenance 0.188
Total 1,323.066
VII. CONCLUSION
As e-government is a necessity for good and corruption free
nation it is very important to provide e-government related
service i.e. e-police to citizens for getting better and secure e-
government services. In our paper we have focused about e-
police system for developing countries where the police to
people ratio are unacceptable, therefore, the citizens of these
countries have been sufferer. The main intent of this paper is to
upgrade the developing countries’ police administration to the
world standard by using modern information and
communication technologies. At last we recommend to
developing countries that to take necessary steps for upgrading
the present police system to e-police system by overcoming the
issues and challenges. In future we can add and use new
technologies, wireless communication systems, modern IP
networks [10] etc.
REFERENCES
[1] [Online: October, 2011] World Bank’s Website, Definition of E-
government; http://www.web.worldbank.org › ... › Information &
Commun... › e-Government
[2] [Online: October, 2011] UNESCO’s Website, Definition of E-
governance; http://www.unesco.org/new/index.php?id=19213&L=0
[3] [Online: October, 2011] Toshio Obi, “2008 Waseda University 2008
World e-Government ranking released”, I-Ways Digest of Electronic
Government Policy and Regulations 31, Tokyo, Japan, 2008;
http://www.iospress.metapress.com/index/m6j3217683m714w2.pdf
[4] [Online: October, 2011] Products.com’s Website, About Third Eye
Software; http://www.products.thirdeyesoftware.com/modules/news/
[5] [Online: October, 2011] Police to People Ratio in Website;
http://www.police.gov.bd/index5.php?category=48
[6] [Online: October, 2011] Ringdale’s Website, Enrollment of Fingerprint;
www.ringdale.com/.../Fingerprint%20Enrollment%20Procedure.pdf
[7] [Online: October, 2011] Staggspublishing’s Website, Comparison of
Fingerprint; www.staggspublishing.com/FingerprintComparison.html
[8] [Online: October, 2011] Wikipedia, Fingerprint Recognition;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint_recognition
[9] Ian Sommerville, “Software Engineering”, Seventh Edition, Pearson
Education, Inc., USA, 2008, pp.43-63.
[10] Toshinobu Yasuhira, “Fundamental Upgrade of the Internal Network
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pp.100-106