The Criminal Record Office (CRO) of the police has collected data of about 675,000 suspected criminals while contributing to their arrest with the help of their sketches and fingerprints for the past 18 years.
About 1,200 sketches of suspects were drawn after crimes during the current year, while the Fingerprint Department traced the culprits in more than 500 cases in the last four years.
According to officials, after any crime in the city, officers of the crime scene unit of the CRO reach the spot. Officials from various departments equipped with mordern technology, including the Forensic Science Agency, collect evidence after cordoning off the the spot. The CRO Branch has been instrumental in the investigation of cases.
The branch set up in 2002 has the data of about 675,000 suspects of all kinds of crimes. The Fingerprint Department of the branch sends the fingerprint record of about 5,000 criminals to the office of the inspector general every year. The data is shared daily.
Speaking to Express Tribune, SSP Investigation Abdul Ghaffar Qaisarani said work to improve the performance of the branch by developing mobile applications helpful in fighting crimes was underway. He said that after a ban on biometric recording of attendance in offices in view of the situation of coronavirus in the country, “we started work to mark attendance by identifying the faces of the employees”.
He said work on the application was in progress and in the near future it could also be used in identifying criminals from the record. “In addition, we are working on an application to keep complete record of criminals and to monitor their movement.” If any information is needed about a person convicted of any crime in the past, the application would help confirm whether he is completing his sentence in jail or has been released. Information would also be available about when did the criminal go to jail and would be released, what crime was he involved in and how many times had he been imprisoned.
All the record of the criminal can be checked through the application. SP CRO Usman Tariq Butt said that data of the accused in criminal cases was collected in the branch on a daily basis. “We collect all the data of the accused, including photographs, age and residential address.” He said that under the Verisys NADRA verification system, the CRO helps the investigating officers to get data from the system of the National Database and Registration Authority. In addition, record is available in the case management system from the the FIR to the investigation and the verdict of the court. The official said work was being done on data collection through modern means.
He said sketches were often helpful in arresting criminals. He said the facilitator of the terrorist involved in a bomb explosion in Allama Iqbal Town in 2015 was arrested through his sketch drawn wit the help of an eyewitness. The SP said that the process of drawing sketches of criminals has been going on since the British rule. He said four or five sketches of a suspect in a crime are made in view of the details
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