The Punjab Police has introduced new GPS-enabled patrol vehicles equipped with vehicle registration search devices in a bid to arrest rising incidences of chain snatching and carjacking by criminals on motorcycles. About 1014 such vehicles manned by over 4,000 police personnel have been introduced as part of a night policing scheme (NPS). The GPS tracker, an automatic vehicle locator (AVL), sends the location of the police patrol vehicles on the Google maps at the internet-enabled terminals located in police stations. The vehicle registration search device is used to find details, including ownership and state registration, of any suspect vehicle reported by the police personnel on highway patrol vehicles. The search device uses the database of vehicles collected under the VAHAN system of Union ministry of road transport and highways and a similar database of the Punjab government. The NPS coverage will extend to all entry and exit points, vulnerable points, sensitive institutions, and outlying residential colonies of all cities and major towns of the state. More than 350 static points would also be covered every night. Seven highway patrol centres (HPCs) are also being set up either at inter-state boundaries and accident-prone points.
