Police in Karnataka, India, have deployed portable scanners and a new app connected to the force’s automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) to check the criminal records of suspected individuals on-the-go via finger biometrics.

The news was reported by The Indian Express, which said the portable fingerprint scanners have access to a database of over 200,000 fingerprints of criminals involved in property crimes in the area.

The move is part of a project called Mobile-Crime and Criminal Tracking Network Systems (M-CCTNS), which reportedly saw the deployment of roughly 2,500 new biometric devices to police stations across the state.

Each scanner costs INR 2,500 (roughly US$31), with four or five devices being provided to police stations with large numbers of cases and two each to other, smaller stations.

The manufacturer of the biometric scanners is not revealed in the report. A video from ETV Bharat of a similar system in use in Bengaluru appears to show scanners with Light-Emitting Sensor technology, meaning from Integrated Biometrics.

Initially deployed to identify burglars based on prints collected by police forces from crime scenes, the AFIS is now also being used by patrolling police officers to identify people found to be moving suspiciously.

According to The Indian Express, the biometric devices have scanned 93,645 fingerprints over the last year-and-a-half and found 3,294 matches with criminal records.

The software for the finger biometric system – a mobile app — was created by Capulus Technologies, a technology partner involved in the M-CCTNS project.