#THTalksBengaluru: Citizens can now report cybercrimes at any police station

Citizens can now walk into any police station and report a cybercrime. Presently, they are being directed to the divisional Cybercrime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) Police Stations in the city.

Citizens can now walk into any police station and report a cybercrime. Presently, they are being directed to the divisional Cybercrime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) Police Stations in the city.

City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda, speaking at the #THTalksBengaluru series on Friday (June 30), said a decision in this regard had been taken to reduce a load of cybercrime cases at CEN stations which are overwhelmed with thousands of cases, stretching the resources very thin.

Bengaluru tops the chart of cities in the number of cybercrime cases registered for many years now. Karnataka Home Department, responding to a question raised in the Assembly recently, said that citizens of the State lost nearly ₹1 crore to cybercrimes every day in 2022.

“We have now created a very layered approach to cybercrime probes, which will hopefully help,” Mr. Dayananda said. The first line of response to cybercrime is the Cyber Information Report (CIR) initiative. Anybody who is a victim of cybercrime should ideally first call the CIR helpline 1930 or Namma 112, within the golden hour, where officials will try to freeze the account to where the money swindled is transferred. Chances of retrieving the lost money is higher with CIR, which was pioneered by the city police and is now being replicated across the country, the commissioner said. 

“Anybody can walk into any law and order police station and report a cybercrime. These stations have been directed to register FIRs and investigate these cases on their own. They can either take the assistance of CEN police stations or transfer the case to them, only if the cases are complex and are beyond their means. The dedicated Cybercrime Police Station at the Commissioner’s Office will probe far more complex cases with wider implications. This way there will be more dedicated resources to probe cybercrimes,” said Mr. Dayananda.

The commissioner also added that there were several initiatives being taken for capacity building within the police force to catch up with the advancements in technology and the changing nature of crimes.

“From bloody crimes, we have now moved towards bloodless, borderless and faceless crimes, which pose unique challenges,” he said. “Of late, many of those joining the force are very educated and tech-savvy, which is an asset. We need to train them constantly. For instance, we are playing catch up on aspects of darknet,” he said.