Romanian Police fingerprint database crashes due to poor maintenance

The fingerprint recognition software system utilized by the Romanian Police experienced a major systems failure last June due to poor maintenance, according to a recent report.

It was discovered that two of the police force’s systems failed due to a power supply failure, which could not be fixed.

Mircea Dusa, Romania’s Interior Minister disclosed that problem was compounded since the contract for the maintenance of the system had expired when the power failure occurred. Dusa however has said that the government reinvested in maintenance and initiated a new maintenance contract in early September.

Reportedly, the Romanian Police maintain a very complex biometrics database, called “Imagetrak” that contains important information such as criminal suspect weight, height, hair, eye color, and body marks such as scars and tattoos.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  fingerprint recognition  |  law enforcement  |  national database  |  software