Fingerprint analysis remains state police’s dependable friend while identifying suspects

Tamil film industry may depict stories larger than life, but sometimes, they get facts right. For example, in the film Theeran Adhigaram Ondru, the police managed to nab the notorious Bawaria gang based on their fingerprints. In real life too, fingerprints play a crucial role in helping the police identify suspects.

Investigation into any case requires different police wings to work in tandem. AMong them, the fingerprint wing under the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) is a crucial section. Although CCTV footage is the new favourite phenomenon to crack crimes, fingerprint evidence continues to be accepted as conclusive evidence on the grounds of permanency, individuality and immutability.

One of the oldest fingerprint bureaus in the world established in 1895, the state fingerprint wing has evolved over the century and has a database of fingerprints of over 5 lakh people with criminal background. In 2018, fingerprint experts visited 4,201 crime scenes across the state and collected over 25,000 fingerprints. “Around 280 fingerprint slips collected during investigation matched with those in our database and helped in identifying suspects,” said Deputy Superintendent Krishnamurthy of Fingerprints section.

From burglary to murder, almost every kind of crime require the collection of fingerprint samples to get leads on possible suspects. “Offenders may well be careful about not leaving their fingerprints behind, so it’s the job of fingerprint experts to examine the crime scene, study every object in there and then try to retrieve prints,” the DSP said.

“The experts begin with the entry and exit points of such scenes and a special powder is applied to objects — that they think the suspects may have touched — to detect the presence of their fingerprints. The powders available in different colours along with special brushes that make the procedure easier,” Krishnamurthy added.

The next step is called the inmate elimination process in which people living in the premises are eliminated as suspects based on their fingerprints. The prints from the crime scene is then compared with that present in the database and if eight rich characteristics in relative positions match, it is considered a match. The process cannot yield incorrect results as even twins don’t have similar characteristics when it comes to fingerprint patterns,” said the DSP. The wing also analysis fingerprints for courts and anti-land grabbing investigation wings to probe impersonation cases.

Since impersonation has become common in competitive exams for government posts, organisations such as Railways Recruitment Board, State Bank of India, Income Tax Department, Heavy Vehicle Factory and Ordinance Clothes Factory approach this wing to verify the recruited candidates. “They collect fingerprints of the candidates at various stages of the recruitment and all of them are matched with each other to find out if the same person appeared throughout the checks,” said the official.

Until 2017, the database of all fingerprints in the state was maintained in its headquarters in Chennai and police personnel from the across the state would either mail their chance fingerprint slips or hand them over in person in the headquarters to check if they match with any prints in the database. But with the introduction of version seven of Fingerprint Analysis and Criminal Tracing System (FACTS), all 36 units across the state have been linked the central database and the fingerprints can be uploaded from the district units. “They can also access the database from the district units to check if fingerprint samples match with that of a registered criminal,” said Krishnamurthy.

Seema Agarwal, the Additional Director General of Police (SCRB), had earlier said that FACTS 7.0 will be integrated with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) and if that happens police personnel need not even visit the district district-level fingerprint unit. They can verify fingerprints directly from the police station.

“The process is underway to provide live fingerprint scanner to each police station against the conventional method of collecting fingerprints of suspects using ink on the paper. This is to encourage officers to add more prints to the database,” the DSP said.

Moreover, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is in the process to integrate all state-level fingerprint bureaus to form National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS). “If NAFIS comes into existence, police officers won’t have to travel to different states to find matches for their fingerprints,” Krishnamurthy added.

The Tamil Nadu State Finger Print Bureau was established on August 22 in 1895, while the fingerprint system was adopted by Scotland Yard in 1901 and by the United States in 1903. Fingerprint system was preceded by Bertillon Anthropometric System, which was found imperfect in identifying suspects. The first officer-in-charge of the Madras State Finger Print Bureau was Inspector EA Subramania Iyer aided by two clerks. They were trained by Edward Richard Henry himself, who devised the present system of classification, universally known as the Henry System. From the year 1942 to 1972, the bureau was shifted Vellore and had been functioning from Vellore Fort. Currently, Rs 500 is charged to verify each fingerprint sample.