KARACHI, Sept 9: In what can be described as modernisation of the database on criminals available with the Sindh police at the Crime Record Office, the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee is working to post profiles of criminals with their photographs on a website where any person may visit and check suspects’ profiles instead of going to police stations for identification parades.
For general access profiles of only convicted criminals would be posted, whereas the profiles of the suspects wanted for any crime could only be accessed in the offices of the CPLC or police establishment as general viewing cannot be allowed in view of legal hitches, says CPLC chief Sharfuddin Memon.
The project is expected to be completed within a month at an estimated cost of half a million rupees.
The data on 85,000 arrested criminals would be posted on the web. However, the profiles of criminals who have been bailed out would not be on the web.
There would be different categories of criminals wanted in cases such as robberies, vehicle-related crime, house robberies, rape, kidnapping for ransom. An overwhelming majority of the profiles are that of men. However, the CID’s Red Book which carries profiles of all high-profile suspects wanted in different acts of terrorism or sectarian hits would not be posted on the web and would continue to remain a confidential document, a senior police official said.
Crime scene vehicles
The committee has also taken up the task of refurbishing a crime scene vehicle imported from the US in the ‘80s.
The imported vehicle got rusted while remaining parked on the premises of the FSL Lab in the police headquarters.
Over the years it was stripped of its equipment and accessories reducing it to a mere vehicle on display. It was seldom used at any crime scene. Though the CPLC is trying to have it restored at an estimated cost of Rs300,000, there is no one trained to fully operate this vehicle, an inadequacy admitted by Mr Memon.
The vehicle would also be equipped with sketch software programme facilitating on-the-spot sketch preparation. Equipment for the fingerprint collection from the crime scene would also be available in the vehicle.
Once completed the vehicle would be handed back to the Sindh police, who would be expected to employ the vehicle in major acts of terrorism. With the given state of affairs of the forensic investigation, it remains to be seen whether the Sindh police would be able to use the vehicle or it is destined to meet its earlier fate.
