Fighting crime with technology

Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar

Crime has become very sophisticated in Nigeria and fighting it with traditional means appears not to be yielding the desired results.  Hardly a day passes without a criminal activity being reported in the newspapers.  Either a friend, a family or even you may have had bad experiences at some point with these men of the underworld.  How long shall we continue to live in fear of our lives being cut short by these criminals?  Your guess is as good as mine.  No place is safe anymore in Nigeria; not even our own little prison yards with high fences surrounding our homes and offices. 

Fighting crime by merely just arresting anyone found at the crime scene is not enough, since in most cases, those who committed the crime may have left the scene long before the Police arrive – if they do at all.  This is not to say the police are not pulling their weights in some circumstances — considering their conditions of service and the poor equipment with which they work.  The celebrated case of Cynthia Osokogu reminds us of a breakthrough exhibited by the Nigeria Police Force.  We must say a big thank you for a job well done.  But there are scores of unsolved mysteries yet to be uncovered by the Police.

Effective policing should be everyone’s responsibility — the communities, the public, schools, etc.  Today, technology has made it possible to fight crime with higher precision, greater results, more cost-effective strategies and most importantly, in a timely manner.  Who would not be happy to hear that a car snatched in Lagos, and within 10 minutes or less of being reported, every police formation in Lagos, Ogun and other surrounding states get a message on their mobile phones informing them with details of the car, driver and other pertinent information which will result in that criminal being apprehended by the crime fighters? If you think this is just not possible, read on.

No part of the world has been able to tackle crime without updated, accurate and timely data. With a population of over 150 million people, you cannot manage and control crime without a working national, criminal and biometric databases. The biometric must contain fingerprints and DNA databases. 

Deoxyribonucleic acid isolated from blood, hair, skin cells, or other genetic evidence left at the scene of crime has helped in apprehending criminals when matched with databases. The days are gone when individuals are identified by just names and photo ID without biometrics.

One of the things we will remember about the Obasanjo administration is the introduction of the National Identification Project.  Although the implementation was flawed, at least the awareness was there.  The Federal Government talks about e-Government, e-Business and cash-less society without functional national, criminal and biometric databases.  e-Government without such databases is simply not possible.  The National ID Card project should be re-visited by the Jonathan government. The advantages are numerous.  

Employers can do background check on prospective job seekers before they are hired.  Banks can open account for individuals without asking for guarantors since they can query the databases from their computers and get results in minutes.  In Canada, for example, you can open a bank account in less than 10 minutes without any guarantors.  Banks will be able to track debtors and approve loans easily in a country without credit bureau.  Stolen property can be tracked easily once they are reported.  As soon as it is reported, databases are updated and messages sent out to the appropriate individuals for action.  Missing persons can also be tracked.  Fugitives and criminals who need any of these services can easily be caught since the police can be contacted while they are opening a bank account or registering for phone services.  It will also help the prison and court systems to keep track of repeat offenders who once they are released will commit offence again.  We do not even keep track of sex offenders in our midst.  Such databases will be updated to reflect such offenders.  The databases can be linked to government terrorists watch list.  Our government will be able to have access to international agencies such as Interpol and Federal Bureau of Investigation data in minutes. 

Individuals carrying firearms must register them with the Police which would be stored in the Firearm databases and criminalise illegal firearms not registered.  You can track a crime by the bullet and firearm used since there is record on the database.  Your car number plate can say so much about you since it could be linked to the National and biometric databases.  Road safety corps can query their databases and get so much information at accident scene and can even access your medical history in case of emergencies and take appropriate actions to save lives. 

Immigration can now tie your passport number to your national ID Number and search relevant databases before a passport is issued.  Twenty years or so from now, no foreigner would be able to obtain our passports illegally. Right now anyone can claim to be born in Nigeria since we do not have records to verify such claims.  The databases will give us better insights to the overall population, demography and unemployment needed for national planning rather than just rely on forecasts.  It is no more fashionable to carry files from office to office rather you can now “carry files” electronically without leaving your desk.

For all these to happen, we must incorporate Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in designing these computer systems to be able to “talk” with one another.  SOA enables business agility and decoupling of systems.  The implication is that the systems (applications, databases -National, Biometric – Fingerprints and DNA, Firearms) will be able to “talk”  with private companies (banks, telecommunications), government agencies (NYSC, WAEC, JAMB, INEC, Pension, Universities -private and public), Immigration, Customs, Population Bureau,  Statistics, Car Registration, Road Safety, Hospitals (private and government), States and local governments, Military, etc, and international agencies (FBI and Interpol). The data-sharing agreement must be worked out among various organisations.

The good news is SOA enables you to keep your existing technologies with little tweaking without breaking the banks.  Companies will continue to use their existing technologies while exposing some of their services to other companies as done in the advanced world.  Private agencies such as banks, telecommunications and governments in the USA, UK and Canada share information via SOA.  That is why your bank account sees New York and Chicago stock exchanges.  That is why when you book your flight online, you can as well book hotel, rent a car and make payments online.  So many individual companies are involved in this single activity.  Even our telecommunications industry can benefit a lot since they do not need to build masts side by side.  This will reduce cost of doing business as well as drive down the cost of making calls by consumers. 

There have been cases in North America where criminals were caught based on DNA swab from discarded orange juice bottle dumped in the trash bin, shoes and car tyre marks found in crime scene.  In all cases, they were linked to a functional criminal database.  When you enter the USA, UK or Canada, the immigration officer queries so many databases about your visa and who you say you are.  In coming years, your biometrics will be collected when you apply for visas and matched with another biometrics collected when you about to enter these countries.   USA has already implemented this.

Two major concerns in adopting SOA are privacy issues and abuse of the system.  This is where all parties involved will have to work out what could be shared and what is private.  No system is completely foolproof.  The legal teams will also have to create a legal framework to ensure that those who abuse the systems are punished.  Data is money and anyone found using it inappropriately should   be punished.  Most systems today keep logs of person who accessed the information with necessary timestamps.  For the public to be able to report any criminal activities, 911 emergency number has to be put in place as it is done in all developed countries.  You may not appear in some of these databases except when arrested for any crime.  Data will be deleted maybe after five or 10 years if you are not found guilty. 

The privatisation going on in the power sector is a very good initiative in addressing the epileptic power supply needed to power these systems if well implemented.  Government must pass a law making it compulsory to register every birth with a view of issuing national ID number and recorded in the national database.  The forms should be made available at the local government offices and village heads.  Over time we will have a working national database while still perfecting those yet to be issued an ID number.  Deaths should also be registered and struck out of database over time.

•Odili-Idiagbor, a Middleware IT consultant based in Ottawa, Canada, wrote in via victor_odili@yahoo.com