Police give go-ahead for biometric security plans

The Police Information Technology Organisation has been given a mandate from ACPO to develop a business case for the use of face recognition technology for the police service, on a national basis.

PITO's FIND project - Facial Images National Database - is working to deliver a national mugshot database to the police forces of England, Wales and Scotland. A database of still and video facial images, marks, scars and tattoos which can be stored, retrieved and shared between forces is the aim of the FIND project. A PITO spokesperson said such images will be taken to agreed standards, linked to a person's criminal history record on the Police National Computer, and used to support the identification and apprehension of people arrested for or convicted of criminal offences.

PITO says benefits will include reductions in the time taken to identify an individual and increased confidence in the just cause to detain.

The Biometrics team at PITO is currently evaluating the potential of facial recognition technology generally for future use in conjunction with FIND. Systems will be installed at PITO's London offices and used to provide demonstrations of the technology to the police service and government, as well as to assess the merits of different approaches for achieving automated facial recognition.

Geoff Whitaker, head of biometrics at PITO, said: "We are in the process of assessing the ability of current face recognition technology to meet the requirements of the police service for automated identification. This programme of work will ensure that we continue to be in a position to provide forces with expert advice on this and other biometric technologies."