mumbai the mumbai police cyber crime cell is basking in glory having been felicitated twice this year by the corporate sector but the cybercops have a long way to go according to insiders there is an urgent need for the state government to improve the infrastructure increase trained manpower and make the cyber crime cell accessible to the common man the cell has received 36 cases since its inception in december last year of which 25 were solved and eight persons arrested according to a senior ips officer who requested anonymity the cell is still in its infancy it has only six officers and eight constables working on three to four computers a scanner and a printer it requires more staff since number of complainants are expected to increase fivefold in the coming months the cell needs stateoftheart hardware and software at present the cell seeks support from the internet industry whose professionals are part of the technical advisory committee of mumbai police the internet professionals should impart dynamic training to policemen in the technology field what you learn today becomes obsolete tomorrow it has to be an ongoing training programme the ips officer stated one of the major problem faced by the cell is the inordinate delays in cracking a case said an internet expert who is closely associated with the cell if there is a complaint from a far flung suburb the officers take almost 24 hours to coordinate with the technical advisory committee reach the location and begin investigations the loss of time may result in crucial electronic evidence being tampered or lost we therefore need more cyber crime cells at zonal and police station level so that the work can be expedited immediately after a complaint is lodged according to the it act a cyber crime can be investigated by an officer not less than an assistant commissioner of police acp but the mumbai cell does not have an acp for a fulltime cyber investigation job we seek help of any acp at the division level or at the hq to deal with cyber crime cases an investigating officer said in fact the acps role is merely to endorse investigations which is actually done by inspectors and subinspectors according to police commissioner mn singh the cell would have a major role to play in the 21st century since cyber crime was an emerging phenomenon incidentally mumbai police is one of the few police forces in the country to have a dedicated cell for cyber crime so far the cell has registered five firs but it is yet to file a chargesheet in the court i cannot tell you when the chargesheets will be filed as far as developing infrastructure is concerned the process will take some time senior inspector im zahid of the cell said a major challenge before the cell is to make electronic evidence admissible in a court said flynn remedios member of the technical advisory committee one of the main problems is convincing