Jefferson County, Ala., Sheriff's Office Speeds Booking Process with Face Recognition

Alabama's Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) is implementing a face recognition-based identity solution in order to speed up the booking and release process at Jefferson county jails. The initial contract for $400,000, awarded to Viisage Technology Inc., is for the implementation of an inmate identification system using face recognition technology at two jails in Birmingham and Bessemer, Ala. The face recognition technology also will be used in jail visitation and in a mobile identification system within patrol car units.

Located in the state's largest county, the two jails house approximately 1,300 inmates with over 25,000 inmates processed yearly. Today, the county's current system makes the identification of inmates, particularly those supplying false or alias identification difficult, if not impossible. Without identity information, officers are unable to assess an inmate's full criminal history, therefore missing opportunities to address outstanding warrants and noted threats. In addition, through the use of face recognition, the JCSO expects to build added security into its release process by enabling officers to compare a live image of the inmate to the inmate's stored booking image to ensure the correct person is released.

"Identity fraud is a major challenge in law enforcement. Without the use of advanced technology, there is simply no way to verify a person's identity with complete authority," Jefferson County Sheriff, Mike Hale, said. The system to be deployed for the JCSO is expected to operate as follows. Using Viisage's face recognition technology, as an inmate is brought into pre-booking he or she would be immediately photographed with a digital camera. The photo would then generate a booking queue where the information would be stored and the image taken would be matched against approximately 450,000 faces in the JCSO database. The arresting officer would then review a gallery of potential matches and the individual would show up in the database with his or her criminal history record. The system would also create another image reference for future identification.

If the inmate is a new offender, information would be gathered and the formal booking process would begin. The officer would take a formal set of photographs with front and side views, in order to capture any identifying marks such as scars or tattoos and these digital images would be stored together with inmate information such as birth date, address, etc. The inmate would then receive an identification card. Upon the inmate's release, this card would be returned after he or she is again verified with the face recognition technology.

In using the technology for jail visitation, all visitors would be photographed and matched against a JCSO database of approximately 5,000 criminals with outstanding warrants.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office also plans to implement the face recognition technology in a patrol car mobile application. This would be used to identify an individual when there is a lack of photo identification such as a drivers' license. In this instance, an officer would use a digital camera to generate a photo that would be downloaded onto a laptop, enrolled and matched against a JCSO database of over 450,000 felons. A gallery of potential subjects would then be presented to the officer for possible identification.