BIOMETRICS

FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

BIOMETRIC FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION

BAYOMETRIC
MARCH 10, 2017

Written & Compiled By

Danny Thakkar
CEO & Co-Founder

The law enforcement
biometrics market was
valued at $838 million
and it continues to rise.
This market is going to
reach $1.1 billion in
2021.

FROST AND SULLIVAN

A Growth Partnership Company


INTRODUCTION
The application of biometric technology is
growing rapidly in the field of law enforcement.
According to Frost and Sullivan, the law
enforcement biometrics market was valued at
$838 million and it continues to rise. The
consulting firm predicts that this market is
going to reach $1.1 billion in 2021. This rapid
rise is fuelled by the technological
improvements in biometrics as well as the
growing concerns about terrorism. Biometrics is
now becoming an essential component of law
enforcement at all levels municipal, state and
national and are being used in military and
government facilities all around the world.
Figure 1: Biometrics Market Revenue, 2015 - 2021
($Billion), Source: IndustryARC
Although biometric systems such as fingerprint
recognition have aided law enforcement
agencies for more than a century to identify
and track criminals, their use has significantly
increased over the last decade and a half and
this trend continues to grow. Some prominent
examples of biometrics law enforcement include
the use of biometric technology among the San
Diego police and more broadly California. On a
larger scale, the collaboration of FBIs Next
Generation Identification (NGI) biometric
BIOMETRICS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
system with the UKs National Police Database
is proving to be a valuable resource for
investigation and identification of criminals.
BACKGROUND AND EVOLUTION OF
BIOMETRICS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
Biometrics has been used in law enforcement
efforts for over a century and fingerprints are
quite synonymous with criminal investigations.
The FBI has always spearheaded the adoption
of biometric technology in law enforcement and
was responsible for national fingerprints
collection in 1924. Fingerprint identification
showed its presence in the early twentieth
century and police started using fingerprints to
identify suspects from latent fingerprints or link
them to their criminal records.
Image 1: Fingerprint biometrics and law enforcement
have a very long history
A fingerprint is an inherent characteristic of an
individual and is irrefutable due to its unique
nature of individual identity. Even twins have
different sets of fingerprints and these do not
change over time. The ridges on the surface of
the fingerprint are responsible for its
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uniqueness and every individual has a different
ridge pattern. This is what makes it possible to
identify a person from the entire global
population using his or her fingerprint.
Fingerprint recognition is one of the many
forms of biometric authentication technology
and is the automated method of matching two
human fingerprints.
In 1980, law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
started to implement a biometric based system
called the Automated Fingerprint Identification
Systems (AFIS) for use in criminal cases. This
biometric identification system used digital
imaging to capture, analyse and store
fingerprints. This system for fingerprint storage
and analysis was later adopted in many other
countries. In 2008, Chinese police officials
adopted a fingerprint system called Automated
Biometric Identification System (ABIS) which
allowed the cross checking of inmates
fingerprints for possible matches within the
database.
Image 2: In mid-1980s local law enforcement agencies
started using AFIS
To boost the sharing of electronic fingerprint
data, the Criminal Justice Information Services
(CJIS) division of the FBI started maintaining
the Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (IAFIS) from July, 1999.
BIOMETRICS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
It was the worlds largest person-centric
database containing more than 47 million
fingerprints of individuals and their
corresponding criminal history. This repository
of valuable biometric information about
offenders could be accessed by federal, state as
well as local law enforcement agencies. This
fingerprint identification system had various
capabilities such as automated searches for ten
print and latent fingerprint images and text
searches based on the descriptive information
as well as exchanging of fingerprints and
responses electronically.
Although the IAFIS was a comprehensive
system, the evolving needs of law enforcement
officials and rising security concerns prompted
the development of a new system called the
Next Generation Identification (NGI) to replace
the IAFIS. The NGI was a $1 billion program
and designed to improve the performance of
ten print and latent fingerprint searches. In
addition to fingerprints, it also combines other
biometric modalities such as iris scans and
voice data into a searchable platform. The
advancements in biometric technology have
equipped NGI with advanced fingerprint
identification capabilities and it is the next level
in FBIs biometric identification services.
Currently, NGI is the largest database in the
world containing biometric data of criminals.
To further promote the integration of biometric
technology in law enforcement, another
initiative was undertaken by the FBI in
collaboration with the Department of Defense.
This led to the formation of the Biometric
Center of Excellence (BCOE) in late 2007 in
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Clarksburg, West Virginia which combines the
research of both these agencies.
The application of biometrics in law
enforcement has truly evolved with data being
collected at greater frequency and stored for
longer duration. As such, technical and legal
structures are also being developed for better
sharing of these data and to streamline
searches between local, state and federal
agencies. These initiatives have made the
collection and analysis of data much easier and
have been a blessing for law enforcement
agencies.
FACTORS DRIVING THE INTEGRATION OF
BIOMETRICS TECHNOLOGY IN LAW
ENFORCEMENT
Image 3: Mobile biometric identification technology for
surveillance and detection
One of the primary factors driving the
increasing adoption of biometric fingerprint
systems are security concerns regarding
domestic and international terrorism, the
increasing occurrences of criminal activities and
BIOMETRICS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
gun violence. The government is keen on
investing in technologies that can provide
better security and reliable user authentication
and access control. Mobile biometric
identification technology can also be highly
beneficial to police patrols. The Law
Enforcement and Homeland Security sectors
are constantly faced with security threats as is
evident from the growing numbers of terrorist
attacks and data thefts. Thus the need for
stricter security controls is driving the law
enforcement biometrics market.
Although the United States and Europe
dominate the law enforcement biometrics
market, considerable growth opportunities in
law enforcement biometrics are also seen in the
Asia Pacific region. The key areas of demand
are mostly in border control and
implementation of a national ID system. New
police databases are getting installed or the
current ones are getting upgraded to better aid
criminal investigations and increase the
operational efficiency.
According to TechNavio, the North American
law enforcement biometrics market is
forecasted to increase at a CAGR of 18.2%
during 2013-2018 whereas the global law
enforcement biometrics market at a CAGR of
13.35% during the period 2014-2019. Thus we
see that the implementation of biometric based
law enforcement applications are increasing all
over the world and governments agencies have
started to realise the immense potential of
biometric technology.
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HOW IS BIOMETRICS HELPING LAW
ENFORCEMENT?
In most scenarios, law enforcement directly
deals with establishing identity i.e. accurately
linking the wanted individuals to their actions or
figuring out the identity of a person by
searching a database of criminal records for a
positive match. Generally, in these situations a
1:N comparison is done where the suspects
biometric sample is checked against the entire
database for possible matches. The biometric
sample can either be collected directly from the
individual or procured from a crime scene (e.g.
fingerprints left behind on a weapon) which is
then compared with a database containing
hundreds of thousands or even millions of
templates in search of a positive match. It is
critically important to accurately identify the
individuals convicted of a crime so that
innocents do not suffer and offenders are
booked appropriately.
Figure 2: Working model of a typical biometric system
The adoption of biometrics provides an extra
layer of security in individual identification and
data access. Biometric traits or identifiers are
part of the individuals being and hence
extremely reliable. In biometrics, individuals are
identified based on who they are as opposed to
what they know or what they have. This form
of identification is extremely difficult to defraud
under normal conditions and are able to link an
BIOMETRICS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
individual more accurately than any other
available identification method. As such
biometric identification systems are extremely
important to police work and help ensure public
safety and prevention of crimes.
Fingerprint biometric is used to track inmates in
jails and correctional facilities and to process
arrests quickly and efficiently. Due to the rapid
developments in the field of biometric
technology, it is also possible for law
enforcement officials to have quick, accurate
and up-to-date criminal background checks of
workers in the public domain.
One example of this new technology is the
NGIs Rap Back feature which provides
authorised agencies with on-going activity
notifications of individuals who hold positions of
trust or those individuals who are under some
criminal investigation thereby eliminating the
need for repeated background checks. The Rap
Back features uses fingerprint modality to
identify suspects arrested and prosecuted for
crimes.
Nowadays, the time taken to search through a
database has been drastically reduced which
allows investigators to spend this freed up time
on performing other high level tasks thereby
speeding up the investigation process.
Biometrics is proving its utility in multiple areas
of law enforcement such as checking of
individuals identity in case of routine traffic
violations, correctional facility management,
criminal investigations, border control and drug
and human trafficking.
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INTEGRATING FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION IN
LAW ENFORCEMENT SYSTEMS
Fingerprint recognition can be very easily and
quickly integrated into law enforcement
systems using a biometric solution known as
Touch N Go. It is a developer friendly solution
which allows rapid fingerprint integration and
does not take months or hours. The unique
nature of the integration methodology of Touch
N Go allows fingerprint feature to be integrated
into any application with just four lines of code
and with no prior experience in fingerprint
technology.
Touch N Go has inbuilt features such as
fingerprint deduplication and fingerprint quality
checks. These checks are completed in the
background and ensure that duplicate
fingerprints do not get enrolled in system and
only the best quality fingerprints get enrolled.
Touch N Go is thus able to provide a high level
of accuracy, security and a solid infrastructure
that are the pre-requisites for an efficient law
enforcement system.
Touch N Go has support for multiple
programming languages and developers also
have access to inbuilt applications and source
codes. It is affordable and a high performing
solution with support for a variety of fingerprint
readers.
DIFFERENT BIOMETRIC MODALITIES THAT
ARE USED IN LAW ENFORCEMENT?
Fingerprints are one of the most common types
of biometric data that is collected by law
enforcement agencies. It has been used for
more than a century to identify suspects as well
as store information about offenders and their
BIOMETRICS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
records within the law enforcement system.
Although fingerprint recognition has played a
prominent role in law enforcement for a very
long time and still is, nowadays other biometric
modalities such as facial recognition, iris
scanning and DNA analysis are also gaining
acceptance in this sector.
Facial recognition is also gaining popularity as a
surveillance tool. It can identify persons of
interest on camera and is also capable of
performing other complex functions such as
connecting varied information types from CCTV
footages, database records or social media
photographs and then linking the combined
information to a single individual. The system is
automated, fast and has surpassed human
abilities. With the help of data derived from
social media, facial recognition is nowadays
being used to combat terrorism, locate missing
children as well as improve surveillance. Police
personnel in San Diego are using a facial
recognition system that was originally used by
U.S. military and intelligence agencies to
identify suspects in real-time.
Image 4: Local law enforcement agencies are using facial
recognition software to identify suspects
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 BIOMETRICS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

Law enforcement agencies have also started CONCLUSION

creating multimodal databases which combine
different biometric modalities such as
fingerprint recognition, DNA, iris scans etc. An
example of a multimodal biometrics database is
the Next Generation Identification System
(NGI) which contains almost 125 million
fingerprints and 24 million mug shots.
Biometrics technology has proved their utility in
different law enforcement scenarios and holds
tremendous potential in the future. Biometric
identification methods help to speed up the
identification process in situations where
information is lacking or seem suspicious. They
are considered the complementary tools to
effective law enforcement.

AUTHOR

DANNY THAKKAR
CEO & Co-Founder
Danny Thakkar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bayometric,
one of the leading biometric solution providers in the
world. He has been in the Biometric Industry for 10+
years and has extensive experience across public and
private sector verticals. Currently, he is chief evangelist for
Touch N Go.

Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk
1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
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REFERENCES
1. GLOBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT BIOMETRICS MARKET (2015-2019) - Technavio
2. Biometric Technologies in Policing - (ROBYN CAPLAN, IFEOMA AJUNWA, ALEX ROSENBLAT,
and DANAH BOYD) DATA & CIVIL RIGHTS
3. Law Enforcement Biometrics Month: Next Generation Identification - FIND BIOMETRICS
4. Next Generation Identification (NGI) - FBI
5. Researchers Find Flaws In Police Facial Recognition Technology - NPR
6. Law enforcement increasing use of facial recognition technology - CBS NEWS
7. Half of US adults are recorded in police facial recognition databases, study says - The
Guardian