A city like Port Moresby needs a centralised database for vehicles that are unroadworthy, stolen or have traffic violations. The city has authorities established to enforce policies to pursue stolen vehicles and keep unroadworthy vehicles and reckless drivers off the road, but it is overdue for an upgrade to meet the cities growing population demands.
By system, I mean the process of enforcing policies. In this day and age of technology, we really don't have any excuses. A centralised data management system that would have information at enforcers fingertips can really help. Why do we need this?
1. Car Theft: Port Moresby has more vehicles going under the radar every week. We notice that every week, there is an 'SMV' or stolen-motor-vehicle in Port Moresby on social media groups, pages and posts. Although social network groups are doing a great job of disseminating information from victims to relevant authorities, it is still difficult to verify factual information or capture the thieves. Most often stolen vehicles are then used in armed hold-ups or robberies then discarded afterwards.
2. Road worthiness: Have you ever got a ride on a taxi or PMV bus in the city and wondered 'Is this vehicle even legal" or tried to lean over to see if the safety sticker or registration expiry dates are current? How do we stop these vehicles from operating? Bus crews and drivers have already grown immune to the 'everyday' system of being booked, beaten and charged fines - which they pay and go right back into breaking traffic laws. Not so shocking to residence, because it is now acceptable and has become a norm to society and is not a big deal if you park in the middle of the road to collect passengers on your way to the next bus stop.
3. Improve enforcement: A system that keeps a central register of all suspicious vehicle details can enable enforcers to effectively and easily identify stolen vehicles, unroadworthy or vehicles with outstanding traffic violations on the road.
Would it be awesome if the police can easily identify any unworthy, stolen vehicle in time just by scanning or entering their registration/plate numbers or description (make/model/color)?
1. What is needed to develop a system like this?
I do not think we need a complicated and very expensive equipment to maintain a simple database.
A device that can retrieve and process data (eg: a smart phone)
A stable and reliable network (Internet)
A server that stores data centrally
Relevant authority to monitor and update data regularly
2. What data is collected?
Stolen Vehicle Non-sensitive details (Make, Model, Color, Rego Plate).
Non sensitive details visible on registration or safety stickers of vehicles that have been booked or have outstanding traffic violations.
3. Who manages and verifies data?
Data provided or retrieved from this system must be public information (everyone has access to), as long as it is verified by relevant authorities and made public on a reliable platform (news/notice boards etc)
4. Who can develop and maintain this system?
A system like this can be developed and managed by a private firm/company as long as it does not disclose any sensitive data and is in conjunction with policies of relevant authorities (Police or Road Traffic Authority).
5. Network
Developing a prototype system customized for PNG using a private network or even a VPN that will allow relevant authorities to retrieve all information about a vehicle anytime, anywhere and in a few seconds.
These are just a few points on a possible solution to this issue.
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