The most widely used and trusted biometric method for verifying a person’s identification is their fingerprint. The strongest pillar of authenticity is still fingerprints. In the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the Central Fingerprint Bureau (CFPB) of NCRB now possesses a collection of about 12 Lakh 10-digit FP slips (in digital form) of convicted individuals. For the purpose of developing a national level database of fingerprints, this AFIS is being improved. All States and Union Territories (UTs) would have access to this database for the purpose of obtaining and storing fingerprints.
In addition to the Central Fingerprint Bureau in New Delhi, there are 29 State Fingerprint Bureaux around the nation. There are now 31 fields in the fingerprint database, including name, alias, father’s name, residence, and FIR number. According to the law, only specific offences qualify for the taking of fingerprints. All digitised Fingerprints from all States and UTs would be accessible in the National Database once the new AFIS is put into place. All physical fingerprints that have not yet been converted to digital format will gradually do so. Some States and UTs have AFIS that do not adhere to NIST standards. A bridge software would be used to transform the non-NIST standard fingerprints from these databases into NIST compliant ones. A proposal has been made to install fingerprint scanners in all major police stations and district offices in order to capture the fingerprints of those sentenced to more than one year in jail. All States/UTs would use AFIS to look for and compare suspect or accused fingerprints that could have accidentally been taken from the crime scene. The State Police may instantly compare the fingerprint of an apprehended individual with the central database once The Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) is put into use and the central fingerprint database is merged.
