Cops seek the new face of crime
Cops seek the new face of crime
As part of a large-scale project to digitise offender photographs the NSW Police department has issued a tender for a digital imaging capture system that will enable them to speed up making these images available to mobile custody officers.
According to documents on the NSW government tender Web site, the police force is looking to replace its current image capture system - where images are captured on 35 mm film, called “wet film” - with a digital imaging system.
The document states that currently, the NSW Police force claim to take approximately 80,000 images of charged offenders each year. These wet film images are currently developed and digitised by external contractors, then enrolled into a special imaging system called C.R.I.M.E.S. - supplied by imaging management and catalogue vendor ImageWare. After this, the images are periodically transferred to a centralised image repository for wider use by the NSW police. Film is also archived for the court’s use.
Under the tender, the chosen supplier will fit NSW charge stations with low cost, generic, digital image capture systems that store images directly to the centralised image repository, according to the document.
A spokesperson from NSW police declined to comment to Image and Data Manager as to the exact scope of the project, saying it would "prejudice the integrity of the tender system", however the tender document says this project is phase one of three phase larger initiative called PhotoTrac.
Phase one entails the installation of 10 fully integrated image capture systems in high volume charge stations in the metropolitan areas of Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle. After this initial roll out, the police said it is also considering a Statewide roll out of the system.
Over a two year period, NSW police will fit out the top 110 high volume charge stations with the digital imaging system, allowing the station to capture 80 per cent of the total offender images processed each year at the time of charge. The police expects this will avoid the wet film process for 64,000 photographs per year.
The document also stated that, as part of this PhotoTrac initiative, NSW police are seeking to extend biometric facial recognition and advanced investigative capabilities to Statewide points of presences, under phase two, and provide image capture and investigative capabilities to mobile units, under phase three.
According to the tender document, the NSW Police want a system that complies with US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards – a data format for the interchange of fingerprint, facial and scar mark and tattoo information.
A briefing session will be held on November 15. Further details appear in the tender document.
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