Indian police await gear to collect more biometrics for criminal identification

Indian police are nearly ready to expand their biometrics collection at more than a thousand build Measurement Collection Units (MCU) across the country. MCUs are offices that will be used to collect and store face and DNA biometrics such as blood, semen and hair samples for the identification of persons involved in criminal matters.

The MCU, provided for in the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act of 2022 which was okayed in Parliament last year, will be available at police stations and offices and will collect extra biometric data to be added to the country’s existing criminal identification database which includes footprints, fingerprints and facial photographs, The Print reports.

The outlet quotes some police officers as reiterating that the expansion of the database by adding more biometrics options will facilitate the way criminal suspects are traced and tracked.

The MCU will be lodged in about 1,300 police stations in the country and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) – the government agency in charge of overseeing the implementation of the new criminal identification act – has already issued operational guidelines on how they’ll function.

However, the agency is yet to make available the equipment needed for the collection and analysis of data in the MCUs. The Print recalls that the modalities for applying the standard operating procedures on the functioning of the MCUs, in terms of data collection and management, had been agreed to at a multi-stakeholder meeting late last year.

It also emerged from the meeting referenced that state police stations hosting MCUs will be provided with the software and hardware needed to enable them work.

Stakeholders also agreed that the central database, which will receive the additional data from MCUs, will be linked to other major criminal records databases in the country including the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS), and the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), per The Print.

The MCU will first be trialed in a couple of states before a full nationwide rollout.

Many of the state police stations confirm they have successfully set up the facilities and are only waiting for the needed biometric technology from the central government.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometric identifiers  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  data collection  |  India  |  police