Automated Fingerprint Biometric System for Crime

Record Management

Muyideen ABDULRAHEEM1[0000-0003-4568-7566], Sanjay MISRA2[0000-0002-3556-9331], Jo-

seph Bamidele AWOTUNDE1[0000-0002-1020-4432], Idowu Dauda OLADIPO1[0000-0002-1472-
2237],
Jonathan OLURANTI4
1Departmentof Computer Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
4Department of Computer Science and Communication,Ostfold University College, Halden,
Norway
3Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

muyideen@unilorin.edu.ng,ssopam@gmail.com,Jonathan.oluranti@covenantuniversity.edu
.ng, awotunde.jb@unilorin.edu.ng, odidowu@unilorin.edu.ng

Abstract: Every society has laid down rules and regulations which are to be abide to
by the citizens. Once the laws of the land are violated, then a crime is being committed
and who break that law is called a criminal. A crime is an illegal conduct that is penalized
by the government or another authority. Tracking and managing crimes committed by an
individual whose conduct is extremely susceptible to a variety of framing situations is
what crime management entails. The crime monitoring system can assist in the storage
of records relating to criminals, cases, complaint records, and case histories, among other
things. This process is usually done manually and it attracts a lot of issues. Low case
tracking capability and a lack of searchable crime databases are among these challenges.
In addition, there are issues with paper document management and filing, which can lead
to data loss, unwanted access, and damage. Therefore, there is need to automate the sys-
tem of crime record management. Some researchers have worked in this field but none
of them have been able to proffer adequate solution in using fingerprint biometric system
to identify criminals based on their unique identifiers. Hence, this study aims at develop-
ing an automated fingerprint biometric system for crime record management. The system
would be developed using PHP and MYSQL and tested on some datasets and at the end
would be able to manage crime records efficiently and effectively.

Keywords: Fingerprint, Biometric, Crime record management, Criminal, Citizens

1 Introduction
An ideal society is regulated by collectively agreed-upon laws and regulations, as well
as measurable repercussions for any member of the community found guilty of break-
ing any specific law component [1]. We can observe that as a community or society
forms, the people develop rules and regulations for and to the people. The goal of these
rules and laws is to provide a tranquil life for everyone in that society. When someone
breaks a law, we call it a crime, and the person who does so is referred to as a criminal
[2-3].
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In order for economic, social, and political activity to function correctly, crime is an
unwelcomed evil in society that must be completely abolished [4-5]. A crime is an il-
legal conduct that is penalized by the government or another authority [6-7]. A crime,
sometimes known as a criminal offense, is an act that causes harm to a community,
society, or state in addition to an individual. Such behavior is prohibited and penalized
under the law.
According to the authors in [8], crime management is the challenge of tracking and
managing crimes committed by a small group of persons whose behavior is highly re-
sponsive to a range of environmental conditions. The crime management system,
among other things, can help with the storing of information on criminals, cases, com-
plaint records, and case histories [9-10]. The modern world is technology-driven, as it
is used in many professions to carry out their tasks [10-11]. The advancement of tech-
nology has opened up new avenues for utilizing the many benefits of information tech-
nology in crime reporting. Various technology systems have been developed to aid in
the reporting, response, and investigation of crime incidents [12-13].
Biometric systems are mostly utilized for security reasons. This identity method is
mostly used for individual identification, such as scanning a finger, eye, iris, or voice.
The biometric system is used to reduce criminal activities and terrorist assaults [14].
This study shows how fingerprints, a biometric technology, can be used to automate a
crime record management system. Identity theft, recurrent offenses, authentication
frauds, medical malpractices, and unlawful access & permissions are all on the rise
these days, and fingerprint-based identification is becoming more useful and cost-ef-
fective to combat them [15].
The automated fingerprint is used to identify someone who is suspected of commit-
ting a crime [16]. The technology behind Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems
is revolutionizing law enforcement's capacity to catch criminals and investigate crimes.
The use of manual mechanisms in law enforcement presents a variety of difficulties.
Low case tracking capability and a lack of searchable criminal databases are among the
issues. Managing papers and paper filing can sometimes be difficult, resulting in data
loss, unwanted access, and destruction. Hence, a considerably number of works have
been done in this field to automate the process of crime record management system in
order to eliminate the problems of the existing manual system. However, the system is
still not able to identify the main culprit as there is no technology put in place to
uniquely identify offenders. This can result in punishing an innocent person. This study
therefore proposes a fingerprint biometric system to record and manage crimes in order
to uniquely identify individuals and be able to track criminals using their unique iden-
tifiers.
The aim of the study is to develop an Automated Fingerprint Biometric System for
Crime Record Management.
The contributions of the study include:
1. to design a database to store and retrieve data, and this will manage criminal
records.
2. to develop the system for managing crime record with fingerprint biometric
system.
3. to test the developed system.
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2 Related work
In the technological advancement bid, computers have made a significant contribution
to the simplification of how things are done, as well as the automation of different tasks
that occur in and around our daily lives. According to the way technology has advanced
and improved, computer and internet technology is gradually replacing some compo-
nents of tedious paper work that can be implemented using an online automated system
[17].
The use of technology is thus viewed as one of the appropriate responses to deal with
the threat posed by crime [18]. We can observe that as a community or society forms,
the people develop rules and regulations for and to the people. The goal of these rules
and laws is to provide a tranquil life for everyone in that society. When someone breaks
a law, we call it a crime, and the person who does so is referred to as a criminal. We
need a well-organized law enforcement system to live in peace [2].
In any society, anybody that goes against the law of the land is referred to as a crim-
inal. When a crime is committed, such criminal act would be reported to the appropriate
authority such as Nigeria Police Force (NPF). As society evolves and human motives
and interactions become more diverse, the struggle to regulate crime and the collapse
of law and order becomes more important. An ideal society is regulated by mutually
decided policies and guidelines, as well as measurable repercussions for any member
of the society proven guilty of flouting any specific component of the legal infrastruc-
ture [1].
According to authors in [4], crime is an unneeded evil in society, and it must be
entirely eradicated from the community for any economic, social, or political activities
to run smoothly. A crime is an illegal act that is punishable by the government or an-
other authority. The most frequently accepted notion is that crime is a legal category;
that is, something is a crime if it is declared so by the relevant and applicable legislation
[19]. When a person commits a crime, the case is documented in a paper document
called a criminal record. As long as crimes are committed, it is necessary to maintain
track of the cases. A criminal record book is used to keep track of these criminal rec-
ords.
The authors proposed an online criminal record in [20], and the goal of this project
was to create a website for criminal records. It is valuable for police to get data about
the crooks quicker than expected which diminishes human endeavors. The paper incor-
porates three stages; In the principal stage, the client picks their undertakings freely
online through Local Area Network (LAN). In stage two, the user/police can look, ad-
just, and update the criminal information at the server data set. The server is prepared
to do autonomously executing fundamental customer demands. In stage three, the ex-
ecutive can save the last criminal record and the customer's outcomes in the information
base.
In [21], the authors proposed a Real-Time Crime Records Management System for
National Police Force (NPF). The exploration was meant to plan and execute an auto-
mated ongoing record the executives’ framework for the NPF. The framework was car-
ried out utilizing Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) for a profoundly intelligent
graphical UI, PHP, and MySQL for a strong data set. However, there is no method put
in place to identify individual uniquely for appropriate tracking and managing of crim-
inals.
4

A paper on Integrating Biometrics into Police Information Management System was

proposed by [22] which uses Zambia police as case study. A baseline research was
conducted to determine the levels of formal education, information and communication
technology (ICT) abilities, and ICT tool usage within the Zambia Police Service. Re-
sults showed that 47% have moved on from school, 32% finished secondary school and
21% had accomplished an alumni or postgraduate certification. Moreover, 24% had
gotten fundamental PC preparing. The overview likewise uncovered that 39% of the
respondents utilize their own email for business related interchanges. The concentrate
additionally pointed toward building up the significant business processes. Utilizing the
business interaction results from the pattern study, a model was created. The model was
utilized to foster an electronic model by coordinating unique mark biometrics. The sys-
tem was developed using Java Server Page (JSP) and MySQL as the database. The
development procedure was carried out using the NetBeans Integrated Development
Environment. The system is a three-tier application with a client-side user interface,
business logic, and a server-side database. The technology, however, was solely used
to manage information within the Zambian police force. There is no mechanism for
handling criminal records in place.
IOT based Online Police First Information system was developed by [14]. The sys-
tem was aimed to design secured crime record management system, which would have
efficient storage, quick retrieval, and exchange of information. The system was imple-
mented using PHP and MYSQL while Visual basic was also used for the IOT. Still, the
fingerprint approach was not tackled well to uniquely identify a criminal in order to
help police manage criminal records and punish offenders.
In their paper [9], the authors presented an online criminal management system. The
study is a web-based system for online reporting and automated crime record admin-
istration. A person who desires to file a complaint or report an incident on this website
must first register before logging in, and once the administrator has authenticated the
user, he or she can log in and file a complaint. This protest will be gotten by police and
police can communicate something specific with respect to the situation with the grum-
blings to the client who documented the grievance. The framework was created utiliz-
ing PHP and MYSQL. Nonetheless, a unique mark biometric framework was not uti-
lized in overseeing criminal records.
However, this study would eliminate the problems of the existing by developing a
fingerprint biometric crime record management system which would be secured and
makes crime record management easier and storage easy. The system would use fin-
gerprint to uniquely identify criminals based on their unique character.

3 Methodology
Having examined the manual process of managing criminal records, the proposed
system is intended to simplify how to manage criminal records. The user of the system
is the administrator (which can be a police officer in charge). The administrator would
be tasked with registering individuals, capture fingerprints, save record and once record
is being saved, manage records.
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Also, the administrator would be tasked with registration of crimes, once crime is
being committed, fingerprints would be collected at the crime scene, then the adminis-
trator will search the database for a match of the fingerprints collected. If there is a
match, such person is the crime suspect, otherwise, no crime suspect.
The system is a 3-tier application; the front end will be designed using lan-
guages and frameworks such as HTML, Bootstrap, JQuery and JavaScript. The second
tier is the server side scripting language to interact with server resources (e.g. databases)
using Hypertext Preprocessor(PHP) and the third tier is the Apache Server (XAMPP).
The purpose of the system design is to create solution that satisfies the functional
requirements for Crime Record Management using Fingerprint Biometric Technique.
It is a software system designed with the aim of accepting individual’s fingerprints, and
once crime is being committed, compare these fingerprints with the ones collected at
the crime scene. If there is a match, then there is a crime suspect, else no crime suspect.
These systems are designed with the aim of helping police identify criminal suspects
as well as been able to carry out their investigations quickly, promptly and accurately.

Fig. 1. Framework for the proposed system

Figure 1 depicts the framework of the proposed system. The proposed system will
authorize the admin (which can be a police officer in charge) to login their details to
6

have access to the system. The system will validate login for the user and once the
details are correct, it will load the interface for the software. Admin manages records
of crimes and criminals.
The admin is also tasked with the registration of peoples’ fingerprints and crimes as
well as criminals. After a successful registration of individual fingerprints, these fin-
gerprints will be saved in the database. Once a crime is being committed, fingerprints
will be collected from the crime scene and be inputted into the system to check for a
match. The database will be search for a match of the fingerprints, if there is a match,
then there is a crime suspect and further investigation can take place. Otherwise, no
crime suspect.
The use case diagram for the administrator is presented in figure 2 which shows the
activities that are required of the admin such as registering individuals’ fingerprints,
registration of crimes, managing criminal records, searching through database for a
match in identifying criminals.

Fig. 2. Use Case Diagram for the proposed system

ERD provides developers with an overall grasp of the data requirements, modeling
and database structures of the information system before the implementation phase.
It contains three key elements: entities, attributes and relationships. Entities (often
mapped into database tables) represent real world objects, relationships capture how
two or more entities relate to one another, while attributes are properties of the entities.
Figure 3 show the proposed database design of the system
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Fig. 3. Database Design for the proposed system

4 Results and Discussion

Crime Record Management System using Fingerprints Biometric System is a web ap-
plication that facilitates remote management of criminal records using fingerprint ap-
proach.

Fig. 4. Admin Login Page

Figure 4 is the admin login page for the crime record management system. The ad-
min is the one in charge of the system. Once the login credentials are correct, the dash-
board for the admin will be loaded.
8

Fig. 5. Administrator Dashboard

Figure 5 is the administrator dashboard for the system. From the dashboard, the ad-
min can add new admin, manage crimes, manage records, etc. It also includes the total
registered Nigerians, Number of Nigerians with crimes and Nigerians with no crime as
well as total crimes.

Fig. 6. Adding new Administrator

From figure 6, the admin can add new administrator to oversee all the things that
goes on in the system. The system is mainly controlled by the administrator.

Fig. 7. Manage Records

Figure 7 shows the list of registered Nigerians. At the point of registering each citi-
zen, the fingerprints will be captured and after a successful registration, the admin can
then view the details of registered Nigerians. From this place, the admin can add new
record, see details of registered citizens. Admin can also delete records.
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Fig. 8. Add new Crime

From Figure 8, the admin can add new crime for a citizen once the citizen commits
crime. The system will require the admin to scan the citizen’s fingerprints, once there
is a match in the database, then the admin can record the crime.

Fig. 9. Add new Record.

At the point of registration, the fingerprint would be captured and there are 4 at-
tempts. The required number of attempts is 4 times. Once the attempts are being ex-
ceeded, then the fingerprint has been captured, and the record can then be saved.

Fig. 10. Searching for Criminals

In figure 10, once the fingerprint has been input into the system, the system will
search the database for a match of criminal, once there is a match, then crime has been
committed and the admin can then save the record.

Fig. 11. Saved Crimes

Figure 11 shows the record of saved crimes. Each individual that have committed
crimes, their records along with the details are saved.
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This paper has gone through series of activities to proffer solutions for managing
criminal records. After analyzing the paper’s goal and research direction, a set of ob-
jectives were established. All activities performed during this paper were attempts to
realize these objectives which is to examine how criminal records are been saved in
Nigerian Police and elicit requirements from police officers in order to develop a re-
quirement specification and to determine the most suitable software development meth-
odology and technologies that will be used to develop the system with justifications.
To sum up, the system’s objectives were to design, develop and test an online crime
record management system using fingerprint biometric technique which comprises of
a web application to address the problems faced by police officers in manual record
management process and to proffer solutions to the problems.

5 Conclusions
The aim of this study is to develop an online crime record management system to ad-
dress and eliminate the problems of manual system. This paper successfully achieved
its aim and objectives though there is still room for improvement. The application has
been fully tested throughout the paper phases and it demonstrated acceptable perfor-
mance. The has documented all the system’s relevant research details. If future exten-
sions to the system are undertaken, this report will be helpful in assisting the completion
of other requirements and future improvement that might be involved.

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