A state-of-the-art tracking system for criminals arrested in Mumbai was launched at the Mumbai Police headquarters on Monday morning. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who inaugurated the system, said it is the first of its kind to be used by a police force in India.
The Automated Multimodal Biometric Identification System (AMBIS) is connected to a central server and stores photographs, fingerprints and retinal scans of all criminals of record.
“This system is being implemented in 94 police stations in Mumbai as a pilot project. Over 200 personnel of Mumbai Police have been trained in handling this system,” Special Inspector General of Police Brijesh Singh, Maharashtra Cyber, said.
Officials said AMBIS was designed with the purpose of identifying suspects at the click of a mouse and providing information about criminal elements to other police forces, be it within the country or abroad.
Mr. Fadnavis said, “The availability of new technology platforms has helped maintain law and order in the best possible way. AMBIS will be beneficial in storing data of criminals and accelerating the investigation in criminal cases. AMBIS can be described as a Google search engine for the police force as it provides information of criminals in just one click.”
The Chief Minister also felicitated police inspectors Avinash Sarveer, Rupali Gaikwad, Suresh Magdun and assistant police inspectors Prasad Joshi, Ulhas Bhatle and Sandip Jadhav, who worked on the project.
Officials said while AMBIS is being launched in Mumbai on a pilot basis, the State government plans to make it available at 1,160 police stations in 42 commissionerates in Maharashtra, with 2,600 police personnel being trained in its operation.
Police personnel will also be provided with portable units that can collect fingerprints from crime scenes, which will be fed into the AMBIS server. The system will also be connected to the citywide CCTV camera network in Mumbai, as well as the Central government’s Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System, which aims to connect all police forces in the country.
AMBIS will operate under the purview of the Maharashtra Cyber department, officers said.
