Digitalization of The Criminal Justice Processes by Amending Police Rules

DIGITALIZATION OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE DIGITALIZATION OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESSES BY AMENDING POLICE RULES By Kamran Adil, Police Service of Pakistan I- THE CONTEXT Information Technology (IT) is shaping every aspect of life. In Pakistan, data related intervention that led to digital identities dates back to early 2000s when the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was established. It was given state sanction and legal power through the NADRA Ordinance, 2000. So, the IT and law moved side by side. In the field of IT led policing, the Punjab Police has been a forerunner. It was the first police organization to digitalize many of its internal processes and to initiate external processes that provided solutions related to service delivery to the public at large. The internal processes within the police department include the Police Station Record Management System (PSRMS), the digital Crime Record Office (e-CRO), and the Human Resource Management System (HRMS). Likewise, the administrative actions like maintaining the inventory was digitalized. It also introduced many applications that were aimed at organizing data of stolen/snatched property (e-Gadget) and to help fight gender based violence. The external processes that got digitalized and linked to the public service delivery include the establishment of Khidmat Markaz (a service center with all the requisite police services under one roof like police reporting, learning driving licenses, lost/ found reporting etc.,). A robust complaint management system was set in the form of helpline 1787 (that is police accountability driven) and helpline 15 (that is police response driven); both the initiatives were backed by data analytics to punctuate police response and to set the performance indicators for police working. These initiatives draw their legality from the primary police law i.e., the Police Order, 2002, which is applicable to the Punjab. Most of the legality of these initiatives is based on the delegated legislation framed under the power of the Inspector General of Police to issue statutory Standing Orders1. In parallel, the safe city project that was premised on the consideration of crime prevention, surveillance and security backed by data-driven mechanisms focusing on all aspects of governance from the law and order to environment was established by the Government of the Punjab. The legality of the safe city project was founded on a primary law styled as the Punjab Safe Cities Authority Act, 2016 (PSCA Act, 2016) that provided the governing and administrative structure for all the safe cities in the province. The law also legalized collection, collation and visualization of data streams through visual cameras and through social media tools. With the increasing use of the IT based policing, the legal challenges qua the integrating of the technological solutions to the criminal justice processes also increased. In response, the latest legislation like the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, 2021 has already started catering to these legal challenges by including specific provisions with all the safeguards balancing the rights of the citizens to the criminal justice considerations2. Notwithstanding all the efforts of the police leadership to resort to IT based policing, one area that is central to the whole effort, is the digitalization of criminal justice processes. In this write up, besides elucidating the digitalization of criminal justice processes, the latest amendments to the legal framework will be explored. II- THE DIGITALIZATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESSES In a spate of cases, the digitalization of criminal justice processes came up before the courts in Pakistan. It may be noted that the criminal justice processes are the process that establish the legality and legitimacy of police and prosecution in a criminal trial. Essentially, these processes include search, seizure, arrest, chain of custody of evidence, processing of evidence for forensics and preservation of evidence. These processes affect relevance, admissibility and weightage ascribed to evidence. The impetus for digitalization of criminal justice processes is primarily emanating out of police leadership's aspiration to use the IT for policing and is partially nudged by the judiciary as it is burdened with separating the truth from the falsehood, and has to balance the rights of citizens against the governance expediency of controlling crime and law and order. The following are some instances of digitalization of criminal justice processes: A- COLLECTION OF DIGITAL EVIDENCE: In a recent case in which search, seizure and arrest of the accused in a narcotics case came before the Supreme Court, it directed all the police and investigation agencies (like Anti-Narcotics Force) to collect evidence through video recordings and by taking photographs of an accused to establish his/her presence at the crime scene and to document seizure of narcotic substances through video/photo recording of mobile phone cameras3. The digitalization of evidence at the time of search, seizure and arrest, according to this latest judgement, has been established within the framework of the law of evidence4. The Supreme Court, however, did not take into account its earlier judgement on the subject wherein it enumerated multiple requirements that may be fulfilled before an audio-video/digital piece of evidence is relied upon in a criminal case5. B- DIGITAL DAILY DIARY OF A POLICE STATION All administrative and professional acts of the police officers are logged in a document called the daily diary register of a police station. In general parlance and owing to its sequence in registers that form the information system of a police station, it is called Register Number 2 of a police station. Detailed rules about the maintenance and entries to be made in a daily diary register are contained in Police Rules, 19346. The daily diary register is one of the most important document in criminal proceedings and criminal trials. Entries on the daily diary register also have presumption of truth attached to them under the law of evidence and are central to legality of police actions and for establishing timelines, search, seizure, arrest and movement of police officers for their tasks. Most often than not, the daily diaries are summoned by the courts to verify the statements made by police officers. Digitalization of daily diary was a long standing issue as it was being maintained manually. In 2017, through amendments in the Punjab Police Rules, efforts were made to digitalize the daily diary register by allowing maintenance of daily diary register both electronically/digitally and manually7. The maintenance of daily diary electronically/digitally as well as manually did not synchronize with the criminal justice system as there were often discrepancies between the two forms (electronic/digital and manual). This became moot point in many a judgement8. Lately, in January, 2024, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa of the Lahore High Court examined the issue and held that the preference would be given to the manual record in case of any discrepancy between the two forms (electronic/digital and the manual)9. To attend to the issue, the Punjab Police got the Punjab Police Rules amended10. The amended Rules provide: a. Rule 22.3 of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 amended to include and enable the 'assistant clerks', 'senior station assistants' and other IT literate staff to assist the station clerk/'muharar'; b. Rule 22.48 of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 amended to only provide for digital maintenance of the Daily Diary. The purpose of the amendment is to end the practice of maintaining manual form of the Daily Diary. With these latest amendments in the Punjab Police Rules 1934, the digital daily diary has been made the basis of working of the police stations. The digitalization of this important document will surely pave the way for integration of digital criminal justice processes with the criminal justice system. C- DIGITALIZATION OF FIRST INFORMATION REPORTS (FIRs) The amendments in the Police Rules have also catered to digital FIRs11. The law now authorizes police officers to use digital copy of an FIR with a QR code. The law also mandates that five digital copies will be issued including a copy for the District Public Prosecutor. These amendments have given legal cover to the digital FIRs and have also catered for coordination between the police and the prosecution. D- DIGITALIZATION OF WITNESS STATEMENTS AND CASE DIARIES IN CRIMINAL CASES Another aspect that caught attention was the use of digitally recorded statements of the witnesses under section 161 Code of Criminal Procedure Code (Cr. P. C). This issue was further compounded by the fact that the law did not cover digital format of these statements and required hand written statements. In addition, the case diaries that record every step taken by an investigation officer in investigation to be recorded was also not covered under the rules to be done in digital format. Attending to these two issues, the amended rules have provided legal cover to digital formats of statements under section 161, Cr.P.C. and digital maintenance of case diaries12. III- FUTURE COURSE OF ACTION The latest amendments in the Punjab Police Rules are the point of departure for future work in establishing a legal framework that is modern and is ready to embrace the further changes that may be coming in view of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Metaverse. Policing in Pakistan is strongly linked to the rule of law in country and in the digital age that is unfolding, there is need to further strengthen the legal framework enabling integration of technology and criminal justice system. Future areas that must be examined are international cooperation in exchange of digital evidence, digitalization of border management systems, cybersecurity of digital infrastructure and the children and women safety online as their vulnerabilities are increasing in the cyberspace. Pakistan's internal security is a building block of its national security. In its endeavour to protect its citizens, digitalization of criminal justice processes can be a useful governance tool as well.