Technology can help solve, reduce crimes – Network technician

aMembers of the public and the police are being encouraged to “step up their game” in order to prevent the theft of electronic items and find the items once they go missing.{{more}}

Anshu Singh, a Canadian network technician, who has been residing here for the past year, is of the opinion many of these crimes would be solved more quickly if more technology is used.

Singh, a resident of Belair, told SEARCHLIGHT that after the recent series of burglaries and robberies among some students of the All Saint University, he became very concerned and began formulating ways as to how technology could be used to reduce or solve crime in this country.

“Most of the robberies involved stealing cell phones and laptops, according to the reports I read in your newspaper (SEARCHLIGHT).

“Cell phones most of the times are left turned on, because hardly anyone shuts off their phone. Blackberries, IPhones and Androids can be monitored by cell phone servicea providers. There is certain paid software available, which can be downloaded into the phones and the phone owner can monitor the phone, using GPS technology.

“However, St Vincent is not a GPS friendly nation and nothing has been done to fix it.

“The police and cell phone service providers should work together and the end users should report the stolen phone as soon as it is stolen,” the network technician advised.

“The worst part is neither of the mobile companies in St Vincent has local 24-hour customer support. The local police need legal documents to process the request. Sometimes it is too late, especially if robbery happens on Saturday night,” he added.

Singh said similarly, there is software for laptops as well.

He explained that as soon as a laptop is powered on and connected to the Internet, the software will send text or email alert.

“Then, it is up to police to trace the laptop, using the IP address. Again legal documents will be required for this kind of search. Sometimes the laptop can be in other country,” he said.

Another of Singh’s recommendations for solving burglaries and other related crimes is camera surveillance.

He advised that police should monitor certain areas around Kingstown and surrounding areas with cameras.

“There might be a few who might say our privacy is violated. The reality is in today’s world, we, the public, have no privacy. The big brother (Government), always watch us in many different ways.

“If camera surveillance saves property and public and stops crime, then I am all for it,” he stated.

However, though, for a successful camera surveillance to work, wireless and wired networks are needed.

“As we know government schools have Internet and Wi-Fi service. These Internet connections can be beefed up and secured then connect with monitoring centres. From the school, the camera can be connected, using secure Wi-Fi connections.

“For this kind of set-up to work successfully, we need good bandwidth and 99.9 per cent uptime on Internet connection, plus a backup system if the primary fails.

“For any or all systems to work properly, first and foremost, we need good telecommunication network.”

Singh says he is aware that there is cost involved in implementing some of the proposed ideas, but sometimes one has to overlook cost for safety.

“I can talk about all the latest ways of safeguarding ourselves, using latest technologies, but first we need quality telecommunication service, which we lack at present time.

“At present Mobile technology here is in 20th century with Internet speed in kilobytes, the wired broad band Internet lacks bandwidth, nor do we have enough fibre optics network to carry the signal from Point A to Point B.

“As far as laws are concerned which can help technology to catch the criminals, they are not present, or collecting dust in a file cabinet and need upgrading,” Singh stated.(AA)