Smart card to help catch fake cops

QR code on card will be connected to main database

LAHORE:

To identify and locate police impersonators, the Punjab Police has decided to introduce special security featured smart card.

The card will have a QR (quick response) code and will be connected to the database of the Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS).

Once swapped or scanned in any district of Punjab, the data of the policeman will appear on the screen. If someone is a fake cop, his identity details would be missing in the database. The HRMIS is a centralised, computerised database. Earlier, the biometric system was being used for checking the authenticity of policemen.

The smart card will be an addition to it as a biometric system had the limitations as bio-metric readable machines were needed for biometric verification. There have been scores of complaints about the malfunctioning of these devices.

The QR code on the smart card could also be scanned through applications available in smartphones with police investigators and officers.

Equipped with seven security features, each card will cost only Rs90.

IGP Inam Ghani has ordered his officers to prepare and start its distribution from the next month throughout Punjab.

Crime incidents involving fake cops are rampant in the metropolis as well as other cities of Punjab.

Last week, over a dozen, suspected robbers in police uniform conducted at least three robberies in a row of the houses in Raiwind City.

A few days before this incident, Hanjarwal Investigations Police had arrested a matriculate man named Hamza Saleem running a medical store. The suspect would impersonate as an undertraining ASP.

On October 6, a man identified as Abdul Sattar had been arrested from Quid-i-Azam Industrial Estate. The suspect used to introduce himself to the public as a commando and an employee of Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2020.