Even though two days have passed since a series of robberies triggered panic in the capital, the Commissionerate police, despite intensifying blocking and checking at the city’s entry and exit points, are yet to get any success.
In order to nab the criminals, police besides routine patrolling and blocking have adopted measures like the fingerprint scanning system at checkpoints to identify the criminals.
Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty, who personally supervised the blocking and patrolling, said, “Earlier, we used to conduct blocking and checking late in the night. But after observing the patterns of the robberies and loots, we have intensified patrolling and frisking in the evening time too.” Police have intensified patrolling and blocking, particularly on the Lingipur-Pandara stretch of the Jagannath Sadak.
“As there are no sufficient lighting facilities on the Lingipur-Pandara bypass road and it is located in the secluded of the city, it becomes easy for the miscreants to operate. Therefore, we have decided to intensify patrolling particularly on that route. We are confident that this would help us in nabbing the anti-socials,” added Mohanty.
“Earlier, we used the traditional method of recording fingerprints through ink, slab, and roller for the identification of criminals. Now, the same thing is being done digitally to create the database of the criminals. Every police station has been provided with fingerprint scanning systems” said a police official.
While conducting blocking and simultaneous searches randomly on various routes, police are using this fingerprint scanning system to immediately check the criminal antecedents of a person and in case of suspicion is detaining them for questioning.
Sources said the fingerprint scanning system is presently having a database of only 3,000 city criminals. But in many cases, it has been seen robbers from outside the capital are involved in the crimes here.