Idemia facial recognition goes live for Canadian regional police service

Idemia’s facial recognition technology is now live for police in Ontario’s Halton Region, west of Toronto. The Halton Regional Police Service, which covers the cities of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills, announced recently the biometric matching software was ready to come online.

A local media report quotes Inspector Raf Skwarka of Regional Investigative Services, who says the police are always seeking out new technologies that can “improve the way we work.”

“Doing so in a measured and responsible way will help us ensure that Halton police continue to provide residents with the high level of service they expect and deserve, but will also allow us to maintain our longstanding reputation as Canada’s safest large municipality to live, work, play and raise a family in.”

Idemia Identity and Security Canada LLC is officially the biometrics provider. The 5-year,  US$780,000 deal will allow Halton police to compare legally obtained images from crime scenes with a database of 1.6 million mugshots and tattoo images, which is shared between the Halton, York and Peel regional police forces. All three forces contract Idemia for biometric matching services.

Like any law enforcement agency adopting facial recognition, Halton police say they’ll adhere to strict guidelines around who can use the system, and for what purpose. It won’t be used for real-time surveillance, live-streaming, random image searches, scraping the internet for images, or monitoring or identifying people in crowds.

Bill Payne, director of information technology for Halton police, says “potential matches will be treated as investigative leads, not confirmations of identity,” and that trained facial recognition analysts will then review, compare and evaluate the list of potential matches suggested by the algorithm.

Per Staff Sgt. Paul Davies, “policy has been developed that details all aspects of facial recognition’s use and limitations. Once launched, all requests for searches and results, if any, will be tracked and reported to ensure proper records management, audit and compliance. Key stakeholders, including legal and the Ontario Privacy Commissioner, will remain continually involved to address privacy concerns and ensure compliance with the law, minimize privacy risks and ensure respect for privacy and human rights.”

Individuals who want their mugshot removed from the police database can apply to have the image destroyed, provided the criminal charges filed against them were withdrawn, dismissed, discharged or stayed.

Idemia Public Security recently discussed civil and criminal enrollment with its newly launched LiveScan IntelliBook – Stand Alone tool specifically for law enforcement agencies in the Canadian market in a Biometric Update webinar available on-demand.

Article Topics

biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  Canada  |  criminal ID  |  facial recognition  |  Idemia Public Security  |  Toronto police