As Kenyans expressed their opinions about the new attire of the Kenya police, the Ministry of Interior has made official some critical changes in the manner the civil force of the country that is tasked with preventing and detecting crime and maintenance of public order will execute these tasks. In particular, and for the first time, enforcement officers will use digital means in their fight against criminal activities.
According to the Government, this implementation aims to improve real-time reporting of crime to enhance management of cases. Once implemented, the police will address reported crimes in a timely manner with the help of tools such as digital Occurrence Books (OB).
Currently, forces are stuck with antiquated OB books that are often inefficient and slow-moving. What is more, it has been a challenge for the police to instantly access information using existing means.
Digital OBs are obviously efficient and are geared to bolster crime data collection techniques and allow instant access to that information for effective formulation of response strategies.
At the moment, police commanders can now access guidelines and service standing orders on their cellular and smart handhelds.
Also, the service standing orders mobile app has since been launched on Android Google Play. However, only serving police officers can get access to the tool. Availability for other platforms such as iOS has not been disclosed at the moment.
These integrations are part of the police digitization process. Moreover, the government is in the process of integrating the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) with a modern forensic lab to complement the digitization activities.
