Etch a sketch: Criminals strike a pose while their victims dredge up memories of the crimes
The CRO and CPLC use a combination of photography and sheer artistry to help.
KARACHI:
“What is your name? Zaat?” bellows a police officer to a bearded man with a muffler draped around his neck. His height is measured and the 5’9” feet man is asked to sit in front of the only computer in the office. The digital camera clicks and he is allocated a number.
It’s a routine familiar to those registering for an identity card or a passport, but at the Criminal Record Office (CRO) in Kharadar, this is how the police creates records of suspects.
The man with the muffler has been accused of stealing a cell phone, and his record is added to CRO’s collection. The office has been keeping records since 1959 of anyone who has been arrested by the police, save those who commit petty crimes such as pillion riding when it has been banned.
The CRO started taking digital photos in 2007, but it still does photos the old fashioned way. In another room, handcuffed suspects pose in front of a manual camera mounted on a stand. They hold a black plaque; the number of the digital picture is their identification number. They are finger printed. The suspect’s personal details, picture and alleged crime are added in a file that matches the category of the crime he has reportedly committed.
But sifting through the CRO’s records is time consuming. Ayesha, who had come to the office with her son to locate the man who robbed them in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, looked agitated. “We have been looking at photographs for one hour now and have not found them yet.” Shelves are stacked with large files. One of the oldest, yellowing records is of a Bashir Ahmed, charged under section 379 by Brigade police station.
It’s rudimentary work, carried out on an annual budget of Rs47,000. Farah Zafar, who is in charge of the CRO, has proposed to senior officials that there should be CROs at a district level to help victims of crimes. “The only computer can be used for taking pictures or helping the victims find the criminals, so it is only used for taking pictures,” she said. This makes taking digital photos nearly useless since no one can search through the CRO’s database on its computer.
People visiting the Citizens Police Liaison Committee’s office have a more relaxed experience. Investigating officers bring complaints to air-conditioned rooms where people from the Criminal Identification and Sketching System (CISS) get down to the business of making sketches.
Instead of sifting through hundreds of photographs at the CRO, victims are made to recall the faces of the criminals which help the CISS department make a sketch on a computer.
A blue file contains hundreds of samples of facial features. “We first make complainants select the type of forehead and hair that the criminal has,” says a man who has been making computerised sketches at the CPLC for five years.
The feature chosen by the complainant appears on the screen. The complainant then selects the eyes, the chin, the lips, the nose and the ears—completing the computerized sketch.
CPLC controller Mehdi Raza says that the sketching software was first introduced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who arrived in connection with the PIDC attack. But that software with its inbuilt western facial features did not help with capturing criminals in Pakistan. The CPLC now uses software called Imagine, which has ‘eastern’ features. But it has no features for women, so sketches of female suspects are still made by pencil.
A sketched drawing of a Bengali woman allegedly involved in a bombing incident in 2000 is pinned to the board along with computerised white and black sketches of terrorists and wanted men.
The sketcher points out that the system needs to be updated so that the black and white sketches are replaced with colour ones.
Sketches v/s snapshots
Additional IGP SSP Gul Hameed Samoo of the CIA says photographs are more effective than sketches. The DIG of the CIA is in charge of the CRO.
“Since the majority of criminals are repeat offenders, their record and pictures has helped to successfully trace them.”
While Samoo is sceptical, the CPLC’s Raza claims that sketches have been 70 to 80 per cent successful in hunting robbers. He argues that the crime has a long-lasting effect on the victim, and it is ideal that the victim is brought in to recall the criminal’s features within 48 hours. “A six-year-old boy helped us make a sketch of his parents’ murderers in PECHS Block 2 in 1995. When the man was caught, his sketch was almost the same.”
Unlike the CRO, the CPLC has an office in every zone which links it with the area police stations.
Senior police officer Abdul Khalique Sheikh says that the police prefer to work with the CRO instead of the CPLC since the former’s records are more credible. “It is very rare that criminals are arrested using sketches.”
Samoo claims that he has repeatedly requested that there should be CROs at the district level. He also believes it should be shifted to the police headquarters for safety reasons, since high-profile militants and terrorists are brought in for their criminal records. There is also a problem with sharing resources. Till 1994, the courts used to share information with the police about the status of suspects. But now, the CRO has no information on whether suspects have been released or imprisoned, and this lack of updated data adds to the complainants’ worries.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2012.
“What is your name? Zaat?” bellows a police officer to a bearded man with a muffler draped around his neck. His height is measured and the 5’9” feet man is asked to sit in front of the only computer in the office. The digital camera clicks and he is allocated a number.
It’s a routine familiar to those registering for an identity card or a passport, but at the Criminal Record Office (CRO) in Kharadar, this is how the police creates records of suspects.
The man with the muffler has been accused of stealing a cell phone, and his record is added to CRO’s collection. The office has been keeping records since 1959 of anyone who has been arrested by the police, save those who commit petty crimes such as pillion riding when it has been banned.
The CRO started taking digital photos in 2007, but it still does photos the old fashioned way. In another room, handcuffed suspects pose in front of a manual camera mounted on a stand. They hold a black plaque; the number of the digital picture is their identification number. They are finger printed. The suspect’s personal details, picture and alleged crime are added in a file that matches the category of the crime he has reportedly committed.
But sifting through the CRO’s records is time consuming. Ayesha, who had come to the office with her son to locate the man who robbed them in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, looked agitated. “We have been looking at photographs for one hour now and have not found them yet.” Shelves are stacked with large files. One of the oldest, yellowing records is of a Bashir Ahmed, charged under section 379 by Brigade police station.
It’s rudimentary work, carried out on an annual budget of Rs47,000. Farah Zafar, who is in charge of the CRO, has proposed to senior officials that there should be CROs at a district level to help victims of crimes. “The only computer can be used for taking pictures or helping the victims find the criminals, so it is only used for taking pictures,” she said. This makes taking digital photos nearly useless since no one can search through the CRO’s database on its computer.
People visiting the Citizens Police Liaison Committee’s office have a more relaxed experience. Investigating officers bring complaints to air-conditioned rooms where people from the Criminal Identification and Sketching System (CISS) get down to the business of making sketches.
Instead of sifting through hundreds of photographs at the CRO, victims are made to recall the faces of the criminals which help the CISS department make a sketch on a computer.
A blue file contains hundreds of samples of facial features. “We first make complainants select the type of forehead and hair that the criminal has,” says a man who has been making computerised sketches at the CPLC for five years.
The feature chosen by the complainant appears on the screen. The complainant then selects the eyes, the chin, the lips, the nose and the ears—completing the computerized sketch.
CPLC controller Mehdi Raza says that the sketching software was first introduced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who arrived in connection with the PIDC attack. But that software with its inbuilt western facial features did not help with capturing criminals in Pakistan. The CPLC now uses software called Imagine, which has ‘eastern’ features. But it has no features for women, so sketches of female suspects are still made by pencil.
A sketched drawing of a Bengali woman allegedly involved in a bombing incident in 2000 is pinned to the board along with computerised white and black sketches of terrorists and wanted men.
The sketcher points out that the system needs to be updated so that the black and white sketches are replaced with colour ones.
Sketches v/s snapshots
Additional IGP SSP Gul Hameed Samoo of the CIA says photographs are more effective than sketches. The DIG of the CIA is in charge of the CRO.
“Since the majority of criminals are repeat offenders, their record and pictures has helped to successfully trace them.”
While Samoo is sceptical, the CPLC’s Raza claims that sketches have been 70 to 80 per cent successful in hunting robbers. He argues that the crime has a long-lasting effect on the victim, and it is ideal that the victim is brought in to recall the criminal’s features within 48 hours. “A six-year-old boy helped us make a sketch of his parents’ murderers in PECHS Block 2 in 1995. When the man was caught, his sketch was almost the same.”
Unlike the CRO, the CPLC has an office in every zone which links it with the area police stations.
Senior police officer Abdul Khalique Sheikh says that the police prefer to work with the CRO instead of the CPLC since the former’s records are more credible. “It is very rare that criminals are arrested using sketches.”
Samoo claims that he has repeatedly requested that there should be CROs at the district level. He also believes it should be shifted to the police headquarters for safety reasons, since high-profile militants and terrorists are brought in for their criminal records. There is also a problem with sharing resources. Till 1994, the courts used to share information with the police about the status of suspects. But now, the CRO has no information on whether suspects have been released or imprisoned, and this lack of updated data adds to the complainants’ worries.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2012.