Rigspolitiet, the Danish National Police force, is turning to IDEMIA to upgrade its border control technology ahead of the impending regulatory change for the Schengen region.
The incoming EU Entry/Exit System (“EES”) regulation is slated to take effect by May of next year, and is aimed at ensuring that countries within Europe’s “Schengen” zone – an area in which relatively unrestricted travel is permitted between member states – register the identity information of non-European Union nationals entering the region. The impending implementation of EES prompted Denmark’s Rigspolitiet to consider a complete revamp of the country’s border control system, which entailed a year-long competitive procurement process in which numerous vendors were considered as partners.
IDEMIA won out, and will provide a suite of solutions that will enable Denmark’s border authorities to collect the data they need, including face and fingerprint biometrics. The solutions to be provided will include self-service kiosks, automated eGates, biometric tablet devices, MTop fingerprint scanners, and TravelTotem self-adjusting face scanning cameras.
IDEMIA will provider its comprehensive suite of solutions in partnership with two domestic companies: Biometric Solution, and Systematic.
“After Iceland, Denmark is the second European country that has chosen to collaborate with IDEMIA to implement a complete and highly secure solution that optimizes the traveler flow,” said IDEMIA’s Europe VP of Public Safety and Identity, Pascal Fallet. “We thank Rigspolitiet for its trust in IDEMIA, and are proud that our solutions enable countries around the world to strengthen their borders.”
IDEMIA is not the only major biometrics vendor looking to get involved in EES projects. SITA has also been urging member states of the European Union to deploy biometric self-service kiosks, and Vision-Box revealed that it was working with Finnish border authorities on an EES project this past summer.
That having been said, IDEMIA is well-positioned to play an important role in further EES efforts. The company is part of a consortium with Sopra Steria that was earlier selected to provider a shared biometric matching system for the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA). The consortium won a contract to develop a standard border control system for the French Ministry of the Interior soon after that.
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November 24, 2021 – by Alex Perala
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