PITB can now verify ink thumbprints on paper
Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has achieved the capability of extracting and matching fingerprints taken using liquid ink that is generally available.
The head of the PITB Software Engineering Win, Burhan Rasool, who is the Project Director of ‘Computerisation of police stations in Punjab', said the technology can be used to verify or cross check thumbprints on agreements, stamp papers and electoral rolls. "It can be used for near realtime matching also," he asserted.
Earlier, the Punjab Police and judicial staff were using the technology of recording latent fingerprints on surfaces made visible by dusting or chemicals.
The police of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan had ptepared a database of about two million criminals.
The latent fingerprints were lost if not obtained through dusting from the surface in a certain span of time. However, the fingerprints using ink may be collected for matching even after years if there is no smudging.
The facility would help the police and prosecution resolve many disputes related to fraud and violation of agreements.
There were many instances when it was alleged that an agreement was forged.
The progress comes after rhe Punjab government started working a few years back to develop an Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS). Under the plan, departments such as the police, prosecution, reclamation and probation, judiciary and prisons, which are directly or indirectly related to the criminal justice system, were to be integrated through a central computerised system.
For the purpose, the record of police, judiciary, jails and prosecution was computerised. After the computerisation of the data of the departments, their information systems were integrated.
If an FIR is registered, it is entered into the centralised and computerised complaint management system of police and that is available to all the hierarchy of the force and other departments concerned that are interlinked with it. After the FIR is forwarded to the investigations wing, details of the nature of offence, time, place, complaint, victim and witnesses are recorded in the computerised system. As the case progresses, the court and then prison officials update the data if it is required.
Collection of data of criminals was started in the Crime Record Office (CRO) of police. It also involved the collection of their fingerprints. The process was initiated in Lahore and then adopted throughout Punjab.
After Punjab, it is also being replicated in other provinces.
As a step forward, PITB has developed technology of acquisition of fingerprints made using ink.
Sources said that currently the fingerprints were matched with the CRO’s database.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2020.