OmniPerception's News & Events

Press Release: Senior Police Officer Hails Innovative Custody Solution from OmniPerception

20 October 2008

Following extensive trials Merseyside Police has given the go-ahead for the widespread installation of new facial recognition technology, helping officers to verify the identity of arrested suspects even before they reach the custody desk; and saving hundreds of hours of police time.

Assistant Chief Constable (Area Operations) Simon Byrne, said in a recent article in Police Professional magazine (17/10/08) that his team were delighted with how the trials had gone.

`The Digital Image Register`, he said, `is a truly innovative idea that has never been done before by a police force.`

The Digital Image Register (DIR) takes images of a suspect when they are kept in the airlock or holding cell, waiting to be booked into custody and searches the images against a locally-held data base.

This alerts the custody sergeant from the outset as to whether the person is already known to police and may be wanted on bail or warrant. It also allows him or her to decide which prisoners to process first, based on their past criminality and likely behaviour.

The DIR has been trialled at the force’s busy St Anne’s Custody Suite where it is already accurately identifying over two thirds of the suspects making repeat appearances.

ACC Byrne said the trial had been a success and that the force will now roll-out the DIR across all eight Merseyside custody centres from January.

He estimates that these installations will save over 2,000 hours of police time each year.

David McIntosh, the CEO of OmniPerception, that provided the facial recognition technology, explained: `Facial recognition technology can be of enormous benefit to forces because of the rapid and accurate way it can identify suspects. It has never been used by a police force in this way before and we predict that this Merseyside initiative is the first of many such innovations in the future.`

Patrick Leigh, the CEO of the DW Group that provided the hardware said: `This is a good example of where forces working in conjunction with technology providers such as ourselves and OmniPerception can produce a solution that has exciting implications for the way all police forces process suspects in custody.`