ABSTRACT

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 was designed using visual basic programming Language and MySQL for data storage.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Study

Criminality is part and parcel of human nature and society [Alemika, 2014]. That is why no society can claim to be completely crime free. But the types of criminal behavior 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 et al., 2018) 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 [Awake Magazine, 2012]. 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
behavioral patterns [Gautam, 2011]. In the recent past, fingerprint images were obtained by "inktechnique" 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, Using Biometrics approach.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

Crime investigation is always a tedious process which requires accuracy. Unfortunately, in current method of investigating crime, accuracy of data cannot be guaranteed. This has led to the prosecution of innocent citizens and freedom of the guilty ones. In some crime scenes where the culprit left some body traits like blood or fingerprint, the usefulness of those traits is zero because there is not ready technology to decipher the criminal from the blood or fingerprint.

Also, details about a criminal is written and stored on a paper format. Generating a case filing number for each of the cases is cumbersome because it is not easy to trace the file number of the last recorded case and this has led to duplication Cases File and referencing to existing Criminal cases becomes difficult.

Furthermore criminal records are sometimes damaged by water, pest or fire outbreak and can easily be altered by an unauthorized user. Loss of those files can lead to lack of justice. Even if the criminal is caught again, he cannot be linked to the previously committed crimes.

These problems have led to the development of computerized system to investigate crime. Our solution captures the details of each criminal alongside their fingerprint and stores them in an electronic format. The system is protected as only authorized users can access the system. It also cannot be destroyed by natural hazards and due to the presence of the fingerprint if a criminal is caught again, with scan of the fingerprint, his history will be displayed.

1.3    Aim and Objectives of the Study

The main aim of this study is to design and implement a crime investigation system with biometric integration. To achieve the stated aim, the following specific objectives were laid.

i.                   Develop a system can capture, store and display crime records in a user-friendly manner.

ii.                 Integrate fingerprint capturing feature which capture suspects fingerprint during registration.

iii.              Crime records of any suspect can be retrieved by simply scanning the suspects fingerprint.

iv.               The system will be secured and can only be accessed by authorized users.

1.4    Significance of the Study

The importance of this biometric crime investigation cannot be over-emphasized. For crime investigating departments,

i.                   it will help in the reduction of redundancies and inconsistencies.

ii.                 Ensure user defined rules to ensure the integrity of data.

iii.              Enable data sharing across all applications.

iv.               Ensures data access authorization.

v.                 Have an automatic intelligent backup and recovery procedure of data.

vi.               Improve Integrity.

For the general public, it will help curb crime and bring relative peace the people as justice is served to the culprit. This work will also benefit scholars researching the field of biometrics and security as it will serve as a reference point to them or starting point for future researches.