IT-based reforms: Software to verify identity of bail seekers, guarantors

Court staff will not need investigation officers’ assistance to get information about bail seekers, guarantors

LAHORE: The Punjab Information and Technology Board (PITB) is developing a software to help court staff verify the identity of bail seekers and guarantors without reliance on investigation officers, The Express Tribune has learnt.

PITB General Manager Burhan Rasool said that with the implementation of the project court staff would be able to check if bail seekers and guarantors had a criminal record, using the Punjab Automated Fingerprints System (PAFIS) and Integrated Criminal Profiling System, databases of criminals’ records. He said the initiative was a part of the PITB’s programme to reform the criminal justice system using information technology based interventions.

He said the reform would also equip the court with the capability to check the authenticity of the surety bonds submitted by guarantors. He said that currently the courts were dependent on investigation officers to get information about suspects seeking bails or those appearing as their guarantors.

Rasool said his team at the PITB had already computerised around 1.8 million latent fingerprints of criminals taken from various Crime Record Offices (CROs) in the province. He said digitalisation of the CRO records was part of the effort to develop an Integrated Criminal Profiling System. He said under the initiative paper-based 10-print cards kept at the CRO offices would be replaced with digital biometric data.

He said the new profiling system would combine data items like fingerprints, Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) information, driving license information, arms license information, urban property tax information, tenancy information, hotel check-ins, record of prison terms, telephone calls, vehicle and land ownership and CRO. He said this would enhance surveillance and investigation capability of law-enforcement agencies. The profiling of criminals under the PAFIS would also contain details about their physical features and nature of crime.

Rasool said the data was being made accessible on portable 3-G biometric devices called mega matcher and rolling matcher. He said rolling matcher took between five and 10 minutes to match fingerprints with the PAFIS database. Mega matchers could match up to a million fingerprints in a second, he added.

He said the system had successfully been tested at the Model Town police station. Work was underway to make it available at all police stations in the city. The PITB was holding trainings for policemen to equip them with skills to use the system, he added.

The PITB general manager said that a scanner and a fingerprints matcher would be made available at every police station in the province. This would allow the police to upload important details of suspects (fingerprints, CNIC, nature of crime, physical features) onto the centralised database immediately after the arrest. These details would automatically get added to the CRO office record of the district concerned.

He said the database would also enable investigation officers to detect if a suspect was a habitual criminal by matching fingerprints obtained from the crime scene with the database.

Rasool said introduction of PAFIS would prove to be a milestone in reforming the criminal justice system. It would enable improve efficiency and surveillance capacities of law enforcement agencies and revolutionise the police station culture. Besides enabling the police to check the authenticity of various complaints, he said he hoped the IT system would also prevent incidents involving illegal detention and torture of innocent citizens.

The City police claim to have identified at least 70 habitual offenders using the PAFIS during the last six months.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2016.