Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, NJ has implemented the PictureLink Mugshot System as an integrated part of their existing Global Tel Link (GTL, formally DSI-ITI) Offender Management System (OMS).  GTL proposes Dynamic Imaging Systems’ PictureLink Solution to their customers as an upgrade from the DSI-ITI Imaging System.

The County was seeking to improve their mugshot capabilities to speed up the booking process and provide consistent photos across multiple booking areas.  They elected to coincide their implementation with an upgrade to the new Evolution Offender Management System that supports seamless photo capture using the PictureLink Mugshot System.  The County’s implementation of PictureLink included five mugshot booking stations and the conversion of the agency’s historical data and images from the OMS.  One booking station was configured at the Hackensack Police Department so officers at this neighboring location can take photos and access arrest records using the jails database.  Historical data and images from the conversion are also available for investigative functions like photo lineups and mugbooks using PictureLink.

The PictureLink Mugshot System and the OMS are tightly integrated with a simple user interface.  Once booking data is entered into the OMS, officers choose the subject’s record from a queue within PictureLink.  This opens the record and allows officers to take advantage of the advanced mugshot capabilities of the PictureLink system including Auto Capture which directs the camera to pan, tilt, zoom and crop the photo without any user intervention.  PictureLink also performs quality checks on face front photos to ensure that images have consistent brightness, background color and head size.  Once front, side and tattoo photos are captured, photos are sent back to the OMS system and made available within the subjects booking record.

In addition to the primary booking database Bergen County Sheriff’s Office required standalone databases to be used for summons, Megan’s law, visitors and employees.  Each database included custom built forms used for photo and data print outs as well as ID card badges.

To learn more about how our products and services can be provided as an integrated solution with your existing system, please contact us.

Lately, facial recognition has been a hot topic for the media as well as members of the law enforcement community.   To dispel the most popular myths about facial recognition we have outlined a list of misconceptions below.

Myth: Facial recognition doesn’t work and is unreliable

Truth: Many skeptics have suggested that facial recognition error rates are as high as 40% without any substantiated data to back up their claims.  According to a 2006 study by the Information Technology Laboratory of the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST), facial recognition technology has a false error rate of less than 1%.  In fact, the ITL’s 2006 results indicate that improved facial recognition algorithms have improved performance and reliability up to 6X since their previous study in 2002.

Myth: Facial recognition leads to false arrests

Truth: Facial recognition is just another tool available to officers to assist them with the identification of suspects who may be providing false identification or misinformation.  Combine this tool with the officer’s experience and training and it can increase officer safety while keeping communities safe.  Facial recognition algorithms are intentionally designed to ignore race, skin color and hair color which can vary greatly over a subject’s lifetime.  Instead, facial features are used for face mapping that are less likely to change and provide a higher degree of accuracy.

Myth: Facial recognition technology is in its infancy

Truth:
Facial recognition technology is a mature technology that has been around for more than two decades and has improved drastically since its inception.  The ITL’s first study in 1993 and subsequent studies in 1997, 2002 and 2006 demonstrate that facial recognition algorithm accuracy has improved dramatically over the course of its evaluation.   The rapid reduction of the error rate from 0.79 in 1993 to 0.01 in 2006 is proof of technical progress and advancement for facial recognition technology.

For more information about facial recognition technology including references for the above myths please visit the following resources.

Facial Recognition Vendor Test 2006 (FRVT): National Institute of Standards and Technology

Dynamic Imaging Systems is proud to announce PositiveID+ with fully integrated iris biometric technology.  Set for general release in the first half of 2013, PositiveID+ Iris will add to our already successful fingerprint identification and facial recognition products offering an alternative to more traditional biometric identification methods.

Iris biometrics is known for its high accuracy and reliability by utilizing unique patterns found within the iris.  Unlike fingerprints that can degrade over time or faces that change as a person gets older, the iris remains stable throughout a human’s lifetime.  The human iris is also relatively flat making its shape more predictable for recognition and less prone to damage because it is well protected by the cornea.  This is why many experts consider iris an “enroll once” biometric technology that can be used for the lifetime of the individual.  Iris technology is also “contactless”, which means it doesn’t require the individual to touch anything in order to be processed into the system.  This increases officer safety and reduces the spread of germs and disease.

PositiveID+ Iris Features:

• Dual Iris auto capture
• Audio voice prompting in multiple languages
• 1-1 (Verification) and 1-to-many (Identification)
• Biometric Standards Support: ISO/IEC 19794-6:2005, ANSI/INCITS 379-2004

To learn more about PositiveID+ Iris, or to request a free demonstration, please contact Client Services at 856-988-1545.