Central Crime Branch's art of profiling: Tattoos, piercings, hairdos, the giveaway

Bengaluru: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) thinks it is spot-on with its new brainwave to identify rowdies, their associates and family members weird hairdos, body piercings, tattoos and bracelets.

During a recent raid on the houses of rowdies and a few bars and restaurants, the CCB found that all those with criminal backgrounds had weird hairstyles, body piercings and tattoos.

Seeing a pattern, the CCB during another set of raids on bars and restaurants in West and South police divisions a few days ago picked up people with different hairstyles, tattoos, bracelets and body piercings. To their surprise, of those detained, nearly 35 were found to have criminal backgrounds. Now that their surmise has been proved, the CCB is keeping a watch on such people.

A senior police officer said, “It is for the first time we are keeping a watch on such people and we can identify whether they are into illegal activities or not, just by looking at them and observing their mannerisms. The hairstyle and beard they sport are not common, their body piercings and tattoos are different and they are always found in groups, as they never venture out alone. During the raids, everyone who was questioned had hairstyles that were not common. They look suspicious and it helps us identify them easily.”

The officer said that during the raids, it was the youngsters who knew more about illegal activities in their respective areas. “They all gave us valuable information that will be used to crack down on rowdyism in the city. We are also gathering information about meeting points of rowdy-sheeters. Their every movement is being tracked and we will not tolerate any nuisance from these people,” he said.