A pre-requisite for such a capability is the creation of a national mugshot database and PITO's FIND project (Facial Images National Database) is currently working to deliver this to the police forces of England, Wales and Scotland.
Among the anticipated operational benefits of FIND are reductions in the time taken to identify an individual and increased confidence in the just cause to detain a suspect. An initial FIND pilot is planned for Q1 2006, with Northern English forces helping to facilitate this.
The Biometrics team within PITO's Identification Directorate is currently evaluating the potential of facial recognition technology generally for future use in conjunction with FIND. PITO has recently awarded contracts to Aurora Computer Services to install their eGallery product which is based on facial recognition technology from Identix and also to U.S based company Geometrix Inc for their Active-ID 3D face recognition application. These systems, and others, will be installed at PITO's London offices and used to provide demonstrations of the technology to the police service and wider government, as well as to assess the merits of different approaches for achieving automated facial recognition.
Aurora's eGallery product can store hundreds of thousands of digital images from custody suites and can automatically templify them, thus creating a searchable database of facial images, with the ability to return the most likely matches to any enquiry image. Several police forces have already independently selected eGallery to assist with their local investigative processes, and in addition to evaluating this product. PITO will also be using it to provide demonstrations to the police service and wider government.
The Geometrix system makes use of both 3D and 2D data to improve recognition accuracy. This Identity management system uses a fusion of single or multiple biometric technologies including fingerprint, 3D and 2D face recognition, and iris to maximize the likelihood of correct identification even from poor data. The company has already deployed similar systems in US government operations and law enforcement environments for access control, prisoner processing and visitor watch list management.
Geoff Whitaker, Head of Biometrics at PITO said, "Following the mandate from ACPO, 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."
He continues: "With the deployment of FIND in the near future it is inevitable that the use of facial biometrics will take on greater importance in policing. As with any biometric, such as fingerprints, iris or DNA, the usefulness of facial recognition in identification is dependant on the circumstances in which it is used. Whilst at the present time it seems unlikely that the accuracy of automated facial recognition technology will ever match that of fingerprints, it is nevertheless a powerful tool used by each of us everyday to identify friends, colleagues and loved ones and it has a vital role to play within the investigative process."
The Police Information Technology Organisation provides information technology and communications systems and services to the police and other criminal justice organisations in the UK. PITO is a non-departmental body PITO is overseen by a board that draws its members from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the police authorities, the Home Office and PITO is a non-departmental body. PITO is overseen by a board that draws its members from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the police authorities, the Home Office and the Scottish Executive. The board also has independent members.
Quelle: Publictechnology, 16.01.2006
