Kerala: Bio-metric cards for police on anvil

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state police authorities are  planning to introduce bio-metric identity cards to police officials to curb the chances of faking police identity cards. Security features like bar-code have already been introduced in the identify cards of police officials. However, there were instances of fake  identify cards being recovered from cheating rackets. “We are discussing with technical experts and firms  the scope of introducing tamper-proof identity cards containing bio-metric details. The modalities are yet to be finalised,” said state police chief Loknath Behera.

Some states  have already introduced such identity cards.  Strict procedures have been prescribed for issuing identity cards of police personnel and even routine checks have been mandated.  A directive was issued by the state police chief in this regard in 2009. The Special Branch is entrusted with the responsibility. Of late, there have  been many instances of cheating using fake identity cards. A few years ago,  one person was  held from a rural area in the district for posing as a police man by possessing the fake ID card of a police informer.