Smart policing need of the hour: Minister

Hyderabad, June 21 (IANS) Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Thursday said there is a need for smart policing and to expand the fingerprint database of prisoners as criminals are increasingly using technology.

Speaking at the 19th All India Conference of Directors of Finger Print Bureaux here, Ahir said the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920 need to be amended to provide legal authority for taking finger impressions, photographs and measurements of arrested persons.

Stressing on the need to modernise the police force, he said smart policing is the need of the hour at a time when criminals have access to technology and are using it to commit crimes. Use of technology by criminals is posing a new challenge to the police force, he added.

The Minister said that finger print evidence is considered reliable by investigators and jurists as it is fool proof and an effective forensic tool. The database of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which has just 11.5 lakh finger print records, needs to be expanded, he said.

If the police force works to bring down the crime rate and ensure criminals are punished, fewer people would resort to committing crimes, Ahir said at the two-day conference to deliberate on finger print identification systems and modernization of state finger print bureaux.

NCRB Director Ish Kumar said that finger prints are used as unique identity in many countries for solving crimes and the NCRB, which is a repository of crime records, needs to expand its database very soon.

Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Mahender Reddy said that 868 undetected cases in the state have been solved using the automated finger prints identification system.

The Minister gave away Aziz-ul-Haq trophy to finger print experts who excelled in the All India Board Exam. He also released two books titled 'Compendium of Finger Print equipment - 2018' and 'Award of excellence in identification'.