Florida law enforcement deploys remote biometric ID
11 March, 2008
category: Biometrics, Government
Sagem Morpho, a Tacoma, Wash.-based biometric vendor, announced that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has deployed a statewide fingerprint identification system dedicated to remote identification. The Sagem Morpho Rapid ID system enables Florida public safety officers in the field or other remote locations to positively identify sex offenders, probationers, and individuals with Florida criminal records in less than 15 seconds.
In a typical Rapid ID use, a police officer on the street or a parole officer in a field office uses a small portable device called an edge biometric scanner to obtain digital fingerprint images from an individual. The edge unit transmits the digital print images either wirelessly or via a closed network to the Rapid ID system in Tallahassee for matching against the approximately 4-million FDLE fingerprint database.
If a database match is made with the individual’s prints, Rapid ID uses an identification number to extract that person’s criminal records from the Florida Criminal Information Center. The criminal record is packaged into an abbreviated format and returned to a screen on the edge device where it can be viewed and read by the public safety official.
Sagem Morpho, which develops Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems for public safety agencies, used it experience to create the Rapid ID system for FDLE. Originally mandated by Florida’s Jessica Lunsford Act, the FDLE Rapid ID was launched in October 2006 and is part of Florida’s Integrated Criminal History System, also know as FALCON. FALCON involves the integration and enhancement of Florida’s Computerized Criminal History and Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems.