Criminal Identification
Maintains and manages the national fingerprint registry, biometric databases, and systems for the identification of suspects and defendants, in support of investigations and international police cooperation.
The PCIC Criminal Identification Department is responsible for managing the national judicial-identification system, maintaining and continuously updating the national fingerprint registry and the biometric databases that serve criminal investigations and international police cooperation. Its activity cuts across all PCIC operational departments and provides essential support to daily investigative work.
The department collects, classifies, stores, and cross-checks fingerprints, judicial photographic records, and other biometric data of suspects, defendants, and convicted persons. This systematic archive makes it possible to identify offenders by comparing traces collected at crime scenes with existing database records, to detect repeat offenders, to verify contested identities in judicial proceedings, and to execute national and international arrest warrants based on updated biometric profiles.
In international cooperation, the department provides the interface with INTERPOL’s identification systems, enabling cross-checks of biometric data with the organisation’s global databases and facilitating the identification of suspects with prior records or warrants in other countries. This capacity is particularly relevant in trafficking-in-persons cases, transnational organised crime, and offences committed by individuals moving between jurisdictions.
Management of the biometric databases is subject to strict standards of personal-data protection and procedural legality. Access to the information is controlled and auditable, ensuring that the data collected is used exclusively for the purposes provided for by law and that citizens’ fundamental rights are fully respected.