Software Implementation of Crime Investigation Using Biometric Approach

Introduction

1.1 Overview

Criminality is part and parcel of human nature and society. That is why no society can claim to be completely crime free. But the types of criminal behaviour tend to follow the pattern of social and economic development of a given society. It is therefore not unexpected that a society at a low level of development and as Madden and Chiu (1998) mentioned, uneven distribution of income (and wealth) tends to experience an upsurge in the rate of violent crimes such as armed robbery, politically motivated killings, the use of illegal weapons, ethnic and religious clashes and the like. What is worrisome, however, is that the police which are meant to be the antidote to criminality appear to be getting overwhelmed by the phenomenon.

The criminals appear to be ahead of the police such that the latter now only react to the commission of crimes and usually after the offenders might have left the scene making things appear as if the original emphasis on crime prevention has been completely lost Aside other complaints, there are institutional constraints, which contribute to the uncomplimentary image of the police and thereby undermining their capacity to deliver efficient crime control via proper and prompt investigation and policing services. These include inadequate manpower, lack of expertise, lack of adequate equipment, low level of education, low morale, lack of training facilities and lack of technological knowhow, etc.

In developed countries; computers have been used in crime detection for some decades. Computer-Based Criminal. Records Systems were the first of such systems deployed as an attempt to record a person’s criminal history. Before the introduction and the application of computers in criminal records, crime investigation, and detection, most criminal records or other criminal related activities was carried out using the manual or traditional approach in the process of data processing, which involves the use of paper files, manual skills and human brain work.

The traditional approach of crime investigation is usually time-consuming, resulting in a lot of delay and often generally inefficient leading to high cost. On the other hand, the use of computers in the management of criminal records and crime investigation tends to be very efficient due to the fact that less time is spent on the investigation of crimes since it is automated; giving accurate and reliable criminal investigation results.

With the introduction of biometrics technology which is an advanced computer techniques now widely adopted as a front line security measure for both identity verification and crime detection, and also offers an effective crime deterrent.

Biometrics embraces a range of techniques such as fingerprinting and handwriting recognition for identity verification using physical data and behavioural patterns . In the recent past, fingerprint images were obtained by “ink- technique” which is also referred as off- line fingerprint acquisition . It is essentially based on the development of pattern recognition systems, today electronic or optical sensors such as cameras and scanning devices are used to capture images, recordings or measurements of a person’s unique characteristics. This digital data is then encoded and can be stored and searched on demand, via a computer. Such biometric search is not only very rapid (often taking place in real time), it is also a process that is accepted globally in establishing forensic evidence in a law court . It cannot be over emphasized that there is need to provide for adequate, efficient and effective technological knowhow especially in the area of crime investigation which will make their job simpler and faster, as well as prompt and effective in their service delivery. Consequently, this project will seek to design a computerized criminal investigation system for The Nigeria Police Force in Ikeja, Lagos State, using Biometrics approach.

1.2 Statement Of The Study

Various problems are encountered in the manual system of operations in any organization, so it is in the crime investigation system in Nigeria Police Force.

Some of the problems encountered are:

1. Generating a case filing number for each of the cases has been cumbersome because it is not easy to trace the file number of the last recorded case and this has led to duplication Cases File Numbers.
2. Accuracy about dates of filling various components of the cases are not readily available making referencing them very cumbersome.
3. Making references to existing Criminal cases is difficult because of the manual mode of documentation. Delay in accessing information in paper files, paper files are sometimes damaged by water, pest or fire outbreak and can easily be altered by an unauthorized user.
4. Missing criminal record files which might have been caused by theft or wrongly placed or kept by the officer(s) in charge.
5. Manual searching for information about crime cases handled by the Crime Investigation Department has been very tedious because the cases files are not arranged in a logical manner.

1.3 Aim

To design and implement a biometric machine using audio usual basic to help in the crime investigation.

1.4 Objectives Of The Study

Our Crime Investigation using biometric will:

1. Help in the Reduction of redundancies and inconsistencies.
2. Ensure user defined rules to ensure the integrity of data.
3. Enable data sharing across all applications.
4. Ensures data access authorization.
5. Have an automatic intelligent backup and recovery procedure of data.
6. Improve Integrity.

1.5 Scope Of The Study

The research focuses on the Nigerian Police force in which the scope of the study focuses on Area G Ikeja Police command Lagos State. The study covers the State headquarters of the Nigerian Police in Lagos state and proposes a biometric approach to Crime investigation for a more clear and successful Crime investigation.

1.6 Significance Of The Study

Reliable criminal suspects’ recognition is an important problem in crime investigation process. Biometrics recognition is becoming an irreplaceable part of many identification systems. While successful in some niche markets, the biometrics technology has not yet delivered its promise of full proof automatic crime suspects’ recognition, especially in a developing country like Nigeria. The study proposes and implements a biometrics-based crime investigation system for the Nigerian Police Force. The software will be designed using Visual BASIC programming language.

(Keywords: biometric, convict, crime, criminal, evidence, scene, suspect, victim, witness, Visual Basic)

1.7 Definition Of Terms

Biometrics:

It refers to authentication techniques that rely on measurable physical characteristics that can be automatically checked.

Convict:

Declared to be guilty of a criminal offence by the verdict of a jury.

Crime:

An action which constitutes a serious offence against an individual or the state and is punishable by law.

Criminal:

A person who has committed a crime

Suspect:

A person who has committed a crime

Victim:

A person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident.

Suspect:

Believe to be guilty of a crime or offence, without certain proof

Witness:

A person giving sworn testimony to a court of law or the police.

Visual Basic:

Is a programming environment from Microsoft in which a programmer uses a graphical user interface (GUI) to choose and modify preselected sections of code written in the basic programming language