Iris ID continues expansion with Texas Department of Public Safety partnership

The border between the United States and Mexico has been heating up. A landscape that can reach over 100F (37C) in the summer, but which has become an even hotter topic in the political realm. For Texas, which has the longest border with Mexico of any U.S. state, it’s especially salient.

This is where the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS) has responsibility, safeguarding over 30 million residents and critical infrastructure. And it is where Iris ID is expanding with a “significant new partnership,” according to the company.

Iris ID is providing 200 more of its Iris ID iCAM TD100A units to the TDPS’ livescan systems. It is part of a broader trend of iris biometric technology use for law enforcement, criminal justice agencies, and their partners.

This is due to the accuracy of iris biometric recognition, which is greater than that of either fingerprints or facial recognition. As a biometric identifier, irises are more stable over a person’s life than fingerprints or faces. Iris scanning is also useful in scenarios that need quick, accurate, and non-contact identification.

The TDPS is constantly monitoring 1,254 miles of international border with Mexico and requires efficient technology whilst having limited resources amidst challenges that are played out in international headlines as the USA’s Commander-in-Chief draws attention to the country’s southern border.

Iris ID has been present in the area since 2014 when it began a pilot program with Border Patrol and the FBI — the Next Generation Identification Iris Service (NGI). This gave law enforcement and government agencies access to the largest repository of iris biometric data associated with fingerprint and face images.

From this iris-only search capability that provides 1-N identification is possible, speeding up the intake and matching processes of detainees. The FBI officially rolled out the iris platform in 2020 and since then the repository has been growing at a rate of 100,000 new identities every month. In 2023 Iris ID reported the NGI had around 2.5 million identities within the repository.

Currently, about 675 law enforcement locations in the U.S. contribute to the NGI Iris Service via 250 agencies, while the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol has over 2,000 workstations installed enrolling to NGI daily. Last month, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency reported the expanding use of iris recognition with around 70 percent of CBP’s apprehensions involving iris scanning.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  iris biometrics  |  Iris ID  |  iris recognition  |  law enforcement  |  police  |  Texas