Notwithstanding to the modern investigation practices especially to deal with white-collar and crimes and other subversive activities, the inadequate use of modern tools in police investigation has either resulted in wrong convictions or set free the accused even in grave cases.
The weak investigation procedures where criminals mostly involved in serious crimes took the advantage of the lacunas and loopholes in the police investigation reports, which led to acquittal of the accused.
“Majority of accused charged in white-collar, cybercrimes, murder, dacoities, robbery, narcotics, attempt were set free by courts due to lack of evidences and loopholes in the police investigation reports,” said Noor Alam Khan, President, Vice Prisoners KP while talking to APP.
Owing to delayed investigation, incomplete challans and contradictions in police investigators and medical officers’ reports in murder and attempt to murder offenses besides increased in number of civil cases, he said the suspects started languishing in jails for a longer period of times waiting for bails, which had overburdened prisons in the province.
The Federal Ombudsman Office 2021 report revealed that about 88,687 prisoners had languished in 116 jails of Pakistan including KP against the sanctioned capacity of 65,168 inmates while the number of female and juvenile prisoners recorded about 1,399 and 1,430 respectively.
“I have often seen contraction in medical officer, police investigation report and FIRs in criminal cases, resulting acquittal of criminals in serious nature offenses including broad day murders and robberies in KP,” said Noor Alam Khan, adding time has come to adopt modern investigation tools including cellular forensic and artificial intelligence techniques to plug all these loopholes so that no accused involved in these offenses could be set free.
Except Mardan jail, he said no prison has been constructed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last ten years where prisoners’ often complained about lack of essential services and overcrowding in holding cells.
Former IGP KP, Syed Akhtar Ali Shah said that use of modern investigation tools including artificial intelligence, hotpots policing, drones’ technology, DNA and core investigation skills besides geo-fencing were imperative for best police investigation procedures. “White callar and cybercrimes have been emerged as a major challenge for law enforcement agencies,” he said.
In the wake of speedy growth of internet and social media users, he said the significance of modern investigation’s tools were increased for quick addressing of complaints related to financial fraud, harassment, defamation on social media.
“KP needs to increase data and artificial intelligence experts besides digital forensic software to strengthen its prosecution services both on police and judicial sides,” he said and added that the fingerprint system being an effective investigative technique in detection of crimes needed complete overhauling.
Former top police boss said that sophisticated gadgets such as polygraphs and voice stress analyzers are used for verifying suspects’ statements, adding that police force was mostly relying on video footage acquired of any significant crime incident for probe.
He said the use of sophisticated gadgets and digital technology would help enable investigators to quickly identify suspects and their handlers in post-blast incidents through different images captured on CCTV cameras. “The fingerprint examination was earlier done manually and our investigators used this tool through a fingerprint directorate where images of the fingerprints of suspects prepared on a print card using roller-ink”, he added.
Following an introduction of Pakistan Automated Fingerprint Identification System (PAFIS), he said that fingerprints are now secured and processed electronically through biometric technology that helped in the arrest of culprits swiftly. The centralized PAFIS database has not only helped check an interprovincial movement of suspects but also stored fingerprint impressions in the national database assisting in issues related to matching of latent impressions lifted from a crime scene. Declaring DNA-typing is a revolutionary technology currently being used by police in developed countries, he said its use was imperative to trace certain cases.
Advocating for adaptation of digital forensics practices involving an accurate analysis and presentation of computer-related evidence to examine digital evidences found or transmitted by digital devices, he said police’s services includes recovery of deleted data from cell phones, SIM cards, hard drives and retrieval of Internet history, IMEI numbers, email records, messages, call logs and data records besides SIM forensics require to be strengthened keeping in view of the changing investigating dynamics.
The much-awaited video surveillance system as promised for Peshawar city project needs to be implemented soon as this system will help in curbing subversive activities and street crimes besides helping in traffic monitoring and VIP security.
Shafiullah Khan, Director, Police Investigation School Peshawar said that the school has been raised by KP police in 2014 where police investigators and officials of relevant departments are being provided extensive professional training by qualified specialists engaged from across the country.
During 2014-2023, he said that 468 courses including cellular forensic, basic investigation, DNA and medico legal reporting, hotspot policing, geo-tagging and case file management were conducted which benefited 10,703 trainees including 10,546 male and 157 female investigators.
Shafiullah Khan said that online and digital technologies were introduced that helped increase the capacity of investigators of police and other departments besides increasing the conviction ratio of the accused.