This week, law enforcement services provider Securus Technologies announced that it has acquired JLG Technologies, a company specializing in continuous voice biometrics. This will bolster the Securus portfolio which already includes solutions for inmate communications services, investigative technologies, information technology services (for emergency, corrections and law enforcement), active GPS based offender monitoring devices, and automated interactive voice response systems.
The voice biometric technology will be helping correctional facilities monitor the communication lines, passively running in the background of calls identifying both the caller and the recipient, flagging unauthorized communicators.
This acquisition seems like it was simply a matter of time. JLG Technologies president and founder has a long history with Securus.
Securus CEO, Richard A. Smith expands: “Jay L. Gainsboro, President and Founder of JLG Technologies has been our partner for over five years – we regard Jay as one of our industry’s ‘chief scientists’ and have a deep respect for his work. We have done business with Jay and his team for a long time – and it was the right time to put our teams together to bring even more sophisticated products to market. JLG Technologies, LLC currently has over 40 active patent applications at the U.S. Patent Office and expects the first of them to be issued within 12 months – so they have developed a valuable intellectual property portfolio.”
Gainsboro adds, “I have worked with the Securus team for many years – and my name even appears on a number of their patents. My team and I will continue our work with Securus and our other industry customers to not only develop our existing products, but to expand their capabilities and potential to add even more value.”
Safety in law enforcement and corrections has been the prime mover behind the collaboration between both companies in the past. Now, officially under the same flag, this will likely continue.
“We started with some ideas on how we could improve safety and security inside and outside of jails and prisons, and developed the Investigator PRO and ICER product sets that are now in use in 27 states and in 189 facilities,” says Gainsboro. “We are very proud of what we accomplished and that matches well with what Securus is building with their Secure Call Platform (SCP) and their recent high-tech acquisitions. We are both creating a safer and more secure prison and jail environment – and a safer and more secure society. We are both committed to the ongoing pursuit of innovative technologies that provide reliable, state-of-the-art solutions for corrections and law enforcement – I think a very noble quest.”
This kind of passive voice biometrics technology has applications in a number of vertical markets apart form law enforcement. In a recent interview with our sister-site Mobile ID World, Brett Beranek from Nuance Communications explained the difference between active and passive voice recognition, as well as how the technology can be applied in the financial sector.
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June 13, 2014 – by Peter B. Counter
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