Police to gather fingerprint data of domestic helps
NOIDA: Noida Police on Wednesday said it was developing a mobile application to record details of people who worked as domestic help in the city, including their fingerprints.
While the city already requires residents to get their domestic helps verified, taking their fingerprints is a first. And while legal, an analyst termed it unfair.
Gautam Budh Nagar police commissioner Alok Singh said that the system is being fine tuned and did not commit to a deadline of when the project will be rolled out. The system, he said, was mooted after several crimes were reported in residential societies and domestic helps were suspects in a few of them.
“Most of these workers are loyal to their employers. However, there are instances when some people masquerade themselves as domestic workers and commit crimes. This initiative is to check such people and take actions,” said the commissioner who completed one year in office on Wednesday. The commissionerate system was introduced in the district to streamline policing and improve law and order.
“We will soon announce the mobile app’s launch date and following that, the Noida Police will organise camps in different societies and ask people to register their domestic helps. We will record their fingerprints and other details which will be used for safety and security purposes,” said Singh.
Apar Gupta, executive director of Internet Freedom Foundation, said that the police could had powers to take fingerprints under the preventive measures as given in the criminal procedure code and police manual. “These preventive measures are normally taken
against people with criminal history. Domestic helps do not have any such issues and hence collecting their finger prints is not good. This is like considering domestic helps as suspects (even before they had done anything),” Gupta said.
The police commissioner said that to deal with the cyber crime, Noida Police will also sign a memorandum of understanding with a big tech firm on Thursday. “This will help us in solving crime cases and also creating awareness among public,” he said.
The police also organised Jansamwad programme at each police stations where they interacted with the local residents and received their feedback on the commissionerate’s completing one year.
“People want more police patrolling and increased presence in certain pockets of the city and industrial areas. High rise residents want action to be taken against abandoned vehicles, and better regulation of traffic at roundabouts. Senior
{ ALOK SINGH } POLICE COMMISSIONER
We will announce the mobile app’s launch date soon and then the police will organise camps in societies.
officials have assured that they will look into our issues. We have also been informed about more CCTV cameras and better surveillance in the district under the safe city project in the next month,” said Sumit Basoiya, a resident of La Residentia society under the Bisrakh police jurisdiction.
Harish Chander, DCP Noida Central, said that police received feedback from the public and listened to their concerns about law, order, traffic, patrolling, and police perception.
“Each area has a unique set of problems and we hope to address them all soon,” he said.