New Delhi: ‘Measurement Collection Units (MCUs)’ set to come up at police stations, district police headquarters and police commissionerates are expected to overhaul the criminal identification system in India.
In these rooms, sized 12 ft x 12 ft, police and prison officials will record facial features and collect biological samples such as DNA, blood, semen and hair, ThePrint has learnt. This data will then be added to the existing databases of fingerprints, footprint impressions and photographs of suspects and criminals to “broaden the ambit of tracing and tracking” of criminals, police officials involved in the initiative told ThePrint.
The MCUs are part of efforts to implement the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022, passed by Parliament last year, which empowers police and prison officials to strengthen data collection of persons who are accused of crimes.
The Act replaced the Identification of Prisoners Act of 1920, which limited data collection to fingerprints, footprint impressions and photographs.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is the nodal agency of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for the implementation of the new Act and its provisions on the ground.
The MCUs are set to be functional at around 1,300 police stations across the country and police officers responsible for their set-up have told ThePrint that the NCRB has already issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the same and states have finished the work allocated to them so far for the project.
The officers highlighted that the onus of implementing the project in its entirety lies on the NCRB, adding that it is yet to give equipment and software for the collection and analysis of data at the MCUs.
ThePrint has reached NCRB Director Vivek Gogia and Joint Director Sanjay Mathur to get their perspective on implementation of Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022. The report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Also Read: 100s of unidentified bodies found in Delhi every year. Each a tragedy, many forever nameless
NCRB procedures
At a meeting chaired by NCRB Director Gogia on 4 November last year, officials held a wide-ranging discussion on the collection, storage, processing and destruction of data collected at the MCUs.
According to the minutes of the meeting — of which ThePrint has accessed a copy — the MHA has constituted a domain committee comprising officials from state/UT police forces, central law enforcement agencies and other key stakeholders, while a separate technical sub-committee has also been constituted to prepare SOPs for collecting DNA as part of the process of criminal identification.
The NCRB at its meeting asked states to notify the agency that will be collecting the data, and appoint nodal officers who will oversee the implementation of the Act and processing of data at MCUs.
The NCRB has also handed out a proposed layout of the MCUs to representatives of state police and they will be provided with workstations, UPS, iris scanners, cameras, lights, screens and applications at the locations identified for setting up the MCUs.
At the meeting, the NCRB highlighted how the system was supposed to function and said that all data collected at MCUs would be uploaded to the central database, which would be linked to other similar databases of crime records, such as the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), and Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS).
States’ level of preparedness
Speaking to ThePrint, state police officers privy to the implementation of the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act said that SOPs for the MCU project had been issued, and explained how far the states had progressed in completing the tasks given to them.
The states are now waiting for equipment and software from the central body for setting up the MCUs, according to the police officials.
“The NCRB had sent the SOPs some three months ago and the administration has completed all preparations to make the MCUs functional in the state,” an officer in the Uttarakhand Police said.
A Madhya Pradesh police officer said the state had completed tasks such as appointment of nodal officer and identifying where the MCUs would be set up, and was waiting for hardware from the NCRB.
The officer added that Madhya Pradesh was one of the pilot states for the project.
“A nodal officer of DSP rank has been appointed while a room of 10×12 feet has been identified at different places for the MCU,” said the officer, adding that Madhya Pradesh would roll out the data collection process within a week of receiving equipment from the NCRB.
A senior officer from the Haryana Police said the state had been asked to prepare rooms and establish connections and “all of that work is done”.
In Rajasthan, the project is in the initial phase and the police force is waiting for funds to set up MCUs, according to an officer.
“The Centre has given funds to the C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, under the IT ministry). They are in the process of developing software for collection and analysis of data at MCUs,” he said.
In Bihar, MCUs have already been set up across the state and officers have been given training about the data collection process, a senior officer in the Bihar Police told ThePrint. “We are certainly on board with this policy,” he added.
The Delhi Police, under the MHA, have submitted their requirements for equipment to the NCRB and are in readiness to roll out the MCUs once that comes, a senior police officer privy to policymaking told ThePrint.
Integration with other databases
A second senior Delhi Police officer explained that the new technology will bring “unprecedented speed” in investigation of cases and lead to spontaneous probe of unsolved crimes.
The minutes of the NCRB meeting suggested that the measurements recorded at MCUs will be integrated with the NAFIS and CCTNS and that will provide investigators across India with specific details such as DNA samples and fingerprints of criminals in one go.
NAFIS is a central database of fingerprints of criminals that generates a 10-digit fingerprint number for every criminal.
The CCTNS is a government project that links police stations across India for smooth transfer of information to improve overall policing and criminal investigation.
Both the CCTNS and NAFIS are maintained by the NCRB and the addition of facial profiles and DNA samples to these networks will turn out to be a “game changer”, police officers told ThePrint.
The second police officer highlighted that since the launch of NAFIS by Union home minister Amit Shah in August last year, the Delhi Police had been able “to solve 164 blind cases”.
The officer added that the Delhi Police were also able to “solve the matter of six unidentified bodies found across states” since its launch.
He said that DNA and facial details combined with fingerprints would “broaden the ambit of tracing and tracking” of criminals and help data analysts alert state police departments about such suspects.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Yogi Adityanath said ‘gunda raj’ over and people bought it. But UP crime still the worst