More than just body cameras, various police and sheriff’s departments around the state are getting some pretty cool gadgets to help serve and protect.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a report showing which departments responded to requests about newly employed biometric technologies.
Mobile fingerprinting is one technology becoming increasingly popular in the last few years. Departments across the state deploy them already or are in the process of testing or acquiring devices. While deployment guidelines vary across departments, documentation often stresses personnel being trained on the devices, law-enforcement usage only, the high degrees of accuracy required for a positive “hit”, and the overall low strength of the information in terms of investigative evidence.
Based on the report, LA County Sheriff’s Department deploys the most biometric technology, with mobile fingerprinting, as well as facial and tattoo recognition systems in place. Both recognition systems access databases with millions of photos of bookings and distinguishing marks, scars, and tattoos.
The EFF remarked that the rise in biometric technologies can be accounted for by the shrinking of tech in general, just like your phone that has a computer more powerful than your old desktop from the year 2000. Which means it is likely for more and more of this technology to enter into the law enforcement realm as time goes on.
It should be noted that the report is not comprehensive across the state’s agencies and only scratches the surface of the biometric tech game.
The EFF’s report can be found here.