Server outage brings Kerala police to a standstill; concerns allayed

KOCHI: The Kerala Police's web server system went down on Tuesday, leaving the state police in a fix. Daily operations at police stations, including FIR registration, were disrupted for hours. Special Branches of the police were also affected. The server, which went down at 10.30 pm on Monday, was restored at 8 pm on Tuesday.

All the online activities of the police are concentrated on the Integrated Core Policing System iCopS platform, which is part of the Crime Criminal Tracking Network system that connects police forces in India. Photos and details of about one and a half lakh criminals in Kerala are stored on the platform.

The suspension of FIR affected the registration of new cases at police stations. The Kerala Police informed the High Court about this matter in writing. The SHO’s were instructed to prepare the F.I.R.s in the manner that existed before the online system came into existence and to scan and upload them after the others had corrected them.

The concerns were allayed after the problems were resolved overnight, and the iCopS service resumed operations. It was reported yesterday that a hardware problem in the data center affected the server operation and thus the web application. The police also announced that IT experts had resolved the issue overnight.

The Kerala Police's data center and web server are located at the Thiruvananthapuram IT Mission. The hardware in the data center malfunctioned, causing the web server to stop working.

• GD Entry, FIR Registration, Charge Sheet Submission to Courts, and all online processes, including data collection, came to a standstill.

• FIR Registration was suspended. This affected the registration of new cases in police stations.