Law Enforcement Biometrics Month: 4 Unique Deployments

The law enforcement biometrics market is large and only growing in scope when it comes to areas of application. Advances in connectivity, mobility, secure cloud technology, middleware and of course biometric capture technology are leading to massive innovations for government agencies concerned with justice. Wearable tech, connected cars and more are all on their way to the law enforcement market, but there are also ready and working deployments of strong identification out in the world right now, being used by real officers, solving real crimes and creating real efficiency.

Here are four unique deployments of biometric technology in law enforcement that illustrate the diverse range of justice-focused applications of identity tech:

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1. Brazil Has Biometrics in the Courtroom

Brazil’s summary hearing process seeks to put criminals who are caught red handed in front of a judge within 24 hours of apprehension. The process requires accurate identification of the individuals navigating the process, a process traditionally done via biographics. But a pilot project in the state of Mato Grosso is heralding biometric change coming to the process thanks to the deployment of Vision-Box technology.

Vision-Box is best known for its border control deployments that seek to bring convenience and security to the airport security experience (a solution recently upgraded to offer passenger analytics). But in the Mato Grosso State Court of Justice, the company’s vb e-pass portable allows officers of the court to immediately collect face, fingerprint, and signature biometrics from a criminal being processed, and to connect them with associated biographic data. The resulting profile is used to identify the subject in court during summary hearing.

2. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Licences Identity as a Service

Sometimes for law enforcement agencies the ability to use advanced technology for the purposes of crime prevention and response comes down to the bottom line. Thankfully for the agencies in question, advances in biometric software and cloud technology have given rise to new models of financing identity solutions. According to Lt. Josh Thai of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the pricing options were a factor in LASD’s decision to license multimodal biometrics from NEC Corporation of America via a service model.

“NEC’s experience in offering such solutions, their leading fingerprint and facial recognition technology and their ability to meet our business continuity and disaster recovery requirements, all under a flat monthly fee, were among key advantages of the NEC offering,” said Thai.

The NEC solution deployed by the LASD is the Integra ID 5 Multimodal Biometrics Identification Solution (MBIS). The product gives the LASD access to fingerprint, palmprint, face, voice, iris and DNA matching capabilities, offers FBI certified disaster recovery features, and can interface with the Bureau’s Next Generation Identification database.

3. Clark County Jail Keeps Track of Inmates with Biometrics

Clarke County Jail in Vancouver, Washington, has a quick turn around. Most inmates behind its bars are in and out within 30 days. And while that might sound relatively pleasant when compared to the horror stories of jailbirds stuck in the system for years as they await trial and sentencing, it also presents an opportunity for escape. This past May, an inmate swapped ID tags, clothes, and cells with a fellow incarcerated person scheduled for release. By reciting simple biographical info and signing the doppelganger’s name, the inmate in disguise escaped.

Now, in order to prevent repeat incidents, Clark County Jail is implementing a fingerprint biometrics system used to enroll inmates as they enter the jail and to properly identify them when they leave. It’s a system that should fully address the threat of inmates swapping identities to spring themselves from jail early. After all, a fingerprint can’t be traded, stolen, or memorized.

4. Police in Hawaii Use Biometrics To Solve 13 Year Old Cold Case

The FBI’s aforementioned Next Generation Identification system has been put to use by Hawaiian police trying to solve a 13 year old cold case. While the case still remains open, the powerful biometric database led to a breakthrough in the suspected murder of an until recently anonymous victim who was found at the side of a road with blunt force trauma to the head in 2003. Because of considerable levels of decomposition, positive identification wasn’t possible at the time, but this past June the body was identified using the NGI: Bradley Elmer Bussewitz, a man in his late forties and believed to have resided on Hawaii Island.

The breakthrough in Bradley Elmer Bussewitz’s murder case is one of many examples of the NGI aiding in previously unsolvable mysteries. In summer of 2015, for instance, the NGI system was employed to impressive effect, helping authorities track down convicted pedophile Lynn Cozart a 19 years after he escaped sentencing in 1996. The NGI was able to match Cozart’s fingerprints to those of his assumed identity, David Stone—the name he lived under in Oklahoma as a Walmart employee.

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Stay posted to FindBiometrics throughout the month of September as we take a more indepth look at the world of law enforcement biometrics. Be sure to register in advance for our Law Enforcement Biometrics Month webinar, Connected Justice: The Challenges and Benefits of Biometric Law Enforcement.