Mumbai Police Catches Criminals Using Biometric Data

Thanks to the development of the smartphone, smartphone makers have come up with phones with fingerprint and face scanners. And now, this tech is being used for security by Maharashtra state.

Earlier this week, the state of Maharashtra was the first Indian state to deploy a biometric verification database from crimes solving. The Mumbai police’s new system is called the Automated Multi-modal Biometric Identification System or AMBIS with which police can analyze crime scene as well as suspect biometric data against the existing criminals found in their database.

The system includes suspects’ various-angled photos for facial recognition, iris scans, palm prints, and fingerprints. These were inputted into a database located at the headquarters of Mumbai Police. However, other Maharashtra police stations can also access the data via an internal network.

Police stations also have a portable AMBIS system which they can take with them to a crime scene. This system will let police compare CCTV footage’s images to the photos that they have.

All of this will become evidence in court.

This project has been an ongoing project of the Mumbai police’s cyber department since 2017. Ever since then, old criminal records have been digitized with this system, at least 6.5 lakh of them, with the oldest dating back to the 1950s.

Over the last few days, several police stations have tested the system. Starting from August 4, the system will officially be implemented. And in just a few days, the system has helped the Mumbai police in solving 85 crimes, using chance prints that were found at crime scenes.

The plan is to equip 1160 police stations in 42 districts of the state as well as police training centers, fingerprint bureaus, and jails with the system.