Faces: The New Fingerprints?

As we learned from the International Biometric Group's recent report, fingerprint scanning is now the biometrics option of choice for law enforcement agencies.

But one sheriff's department in Washington State has gotten a jumpstart in taking things a bit further-- the Pierce County Sheriff's Department was the first in the country to try out the MorphoFace Investigate system, a facial recognition system by Sagem Morpho, and their new technology recently made its inaugural criminal catch.

This past fall, the department caught on to an alleged bank fraud ring, and they were able to break up an organized effort to steal ATM cards and make fraudulent bank withdrawals by doing a database search around the ATM photograph. Two potential mugshot matches came up in less than 5 seconds, and it turned out the two matches were the same person, who happened to have a documented history of identify theft.

Police were able to move quickly, get a search warrant, and find the evidence they needed to make their arrest. Posthaste.

What's critical to note here is that facial recognition technology is adding a new layer to the biometric tools already in place. With this layer, we have access to new levels of speed and accuracy, and as the Pierce County forensic investigations manager says, the facial recognition system "eliminates 80 to 85 percent of the work in booking repeat offenders."

Maybe this year Santa will be making his list and checking it just once?