Mumbai: To curb crimes involving fake police IDs and address national security concerns, the state home department has approved the Mumbai police chief's proposal to issue secure and technology-enabled ID cards to all officers and personnel in the city force.
A budget of Rs4 crore has been allotted for issuing digital smart identity cards for 51,308 sanctioned posts. This makes the Mumbai police the first government department in India to implement such an initiative for entire staff.
A government resolution to this effect was issued on Thursday. Given the sensitivity of the project, the home department has also permitted the police commissioner to follow a closed tender process for procurement.
Currently, the Mumbai police personnel use printed ID cards, which can be easily duplicated using desktop publishing tools. In recent times, cases of fraud using counterfeit IDs, especially in the digital arrest scam, have seen a significant rise.
