October 10, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 27, 1428

JHELUM, Oct 9: The present system of police investigation into crimes was outmoded and mere a wastage of time, energy and financial resources, a police officer said here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the inauguration of automated fingerprint identification system in the three districts of Rawalpindi region- Jhelum, Attock and Chakwal, DIG/RPO region III Nasir khan Durrani said that the accused arrested and investigated by the police under the prevailing system get acquitted by the courts in many cases. On the occasion, district and sub-divisional police officers and station house officers from across the region were also present.

The regional police chief said the crimes analysis of the last five years of Rawalpindi Region showed that only 24 percent of accused were convicted in the courts while the rest went scot-free due to the insufficient evidences against them and faulty investigations.

He said it was a matter of concern for both the police and general public as the criminals get encouraged and rate of crimes was increasing to the alarming level.

Mr Durrani said the new automated fingerprint system had the ability of analysing the finger prints of the suspects from data bank being maintained by the regional police office.

According to the RPO, the finger prints got from crime scene would be matched with that of the accused and suspects by using automated fingerprint system.(AFS).

The project has been initiated with the indigenous efforts of the regional office through software development, Mr Durrani said, adding, that data of all prisoners in the jails of the region and that of those involved in heinous crimes had been collected and computerised to enrich the data bank.

Direct access to the data bank has been made possible to the district and sub-divisional headquarters through internet linking of these offices throughout the region, he said.

Mr Durrani hoped that the new initiative would go a long way in improving the quality of investigation and conviction of criminals in the courts of law because of this technology. He said the new method would also help get rid of the use of third degree methods in the police stations.