Police Dept to purchase 70 palm scanners

LAHORE: The Police Department has decided to purchase at least 70 palm scanners and a mega-matcher software for gathering information about evidence from crime scenes including finger prints and sketches, said a press statement on Monday.

It said the software would have the capacity to save up to two million entries and would take up to 10 seconds to compare different entries.

The statement said Crime Registration Office desks would be set up at central jails across the province. The palm scanners would be provided to officials assigned duties at these desks, it added.

The statement said that the Police Department had already computerised data of 500,000 criminals across the province.

It said that in the last four months the Investigation Wing had been successful in solving 12 important cases using the data. It said that it was the first instance in the country’s history where the Police Department in a province was being equipped with such technology. It added that automation of the data would help the department improve investigation and end its reliance on paperwork.

The statement said the Police Department had also decided to set up a monitoring room headed by an assistant inspector general. The monitoring room would oversee affairs at all front desks and other tasks such as transfers and postings of officials and management of the Crime Registration Office and the Human Resource Information Management System.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2016.