New FBI technology being used by city police
12 April, 2011
category: Biometrics, Government
Five police agencies around the U.S. have been utilizing a handheld, fingerprint-based biometric scanner as part of an FBI pilot program of its FBI Next Generation Identification System, according to a Pittsburg Post Gazette article.
The new system works by increasing a speed at which a state or city police force can get federal criminal information on an individual by digitally sending fingerprint samples from their devices to the FBI’s database to check for outstanding warrants, terrorist ties and past sex offenses.
The device, called the Repository for Individuals of Special Concern (RISC), was designed to replace the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System that’s been in use by the FBI and police agencies around the country since 1999. While the RISC system depends on fingerprint data for now, it has been designed to incorporate other biometric data such as iris scans or face recognition data as the technology comes into use in policing.
In addition to increasing speed and ease of matching persons of interest to the FBI database, the RISC system has also increased its accuracy from 92% to 99.6%. Additionally, the old system is being taxed as its was designed to handle 62,000 requests daily but is now processing 200,000 whereas the new system is capable of up to 900,00 daily requests.
Other possible inclusions into the RISC system in the future include gait biometrics, or the unique way in which an individual walks or scent biometrics.
Read the full story here.
