The common industry knowledge is that mobile biometrics can bring efficiency to law enforcement operations. If a suspect can be identified in the field, an officer of the law need not waste precious time dragging a possibly innocent citizen back to the police station.
It looks like the New York Police Department agrees with this assessment, as recent statements made by Mayor Bill de Blasio will have us seeing fingerprint scanners in the hands of every one of the NYPDs 35,000 officers.
The fingerprint scanners will be included on each officer’s department issued smartphone, which will also be used as a time tracking and call monitoring device.
Both of the NYPD’s stated technological improvements stand to make New York’s finest more efficient, saving time (and overtime) by making sure staff management is squeaky clean and time isn’t being wasted on false arrests. Still, these changes aren’t without their critics.
According to Government Technology News Staff, NYPD commissioner Bratton has acknowledged that such rigorous time tracking might raise eyebrows among unions, while Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union raised concerns about the need for safeguards when it comes to the potential abuse of biometric fingerprinting in law enforcement.
Those two obstacles aside, when the NYPD goes biometric it will mark a massive deployment in law enforcement biometrics.
Of course, biometrics and law enforcement go deeper than mobile fingerprinting and workforce management. Our sister site, FindBiometrics is currently celebrating Law Enforcement Biometrics Month, recently taking a look at four strong authentication modalities that demonstrate technological diversity in the vertical of justice.
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