French Police Use Integrated Biometrics Scanners to Identify Disaster Victims

The French police will be using Integrated Biometrics (IB) fingerprint scanners to identify the victims of disaster events. The organization’s Disaster Victim Identification Squad (DVI) operates under the direction of the Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale (IRCGN), or the Criminal Research Institute of the National Police, as it is known in English.

The DVI has specifically selected IB’s Watson Mini fingerprint scanner for future missions. The Watson Minis will allow the police to identify the bodies found in natural and manmade disasters, including airplane crashes and terrorist attacks.

According to the DVI, the FBI-certified Watson Mini was the only scanner that met the accuracy and durability requirements of the investigation team. The Watson uses a Light Emitting Sensor (LES) film that was built to perform well in adverse conditions. Other kinds of scanners were not as good at identifying dirty fingerprints, or at identifying post-mortem individuals.

“The identification of victims is a major issue and must be done as quickly as possible to meet the legitimate expectations of families and authorities,” explained the DVI’s Major Laurent Tamisier. “The evolution of traditional post-mortem fingerprinting methods towards a biometric capture system allows us to meet this demand for rapid and reliable identification.”

“In the aftermath of these kinds of heartbreaking events, victim identification is the first and highest priority, both for the needs of the families and the investigators,” added IB EVP David Gerulski. “Our technology enables professionals to do such grievous work under extraordinarily challenging conditions.”

Integrated Biometrics augmented its liveness detection capabilities with the release of an IB-PAD anti-spoofing system in March. More recently, the company delivered Five-0 fingerprint scanners to Prodigy Systems to support humanitarian efforts in Yemen, and has since encouraged the UN to recognize International Identity Day to highlight the importance of identity as it relates to human rights.

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September 22, 2020 – by Eric Weiss