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Web site helps deputies pair faces with crimes Site helps deputies search for suspects
By Ruby Gonzales Picture this: A detective needs to put a name to a composite and a photo of two unknown robbery suspects. Now he can check the pool of 2.8 million mug shots in the county's booking system without leaving the station and with just a few clicks of a computer mouse. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department recently put Face ID, a facial identification program it's been using, on a Web-based system so detectives from different police departments in the county can access it from their own computers. The county's law enforcement agencies have a closed network they use to check mug shots and gang information. They can use this intranet to run Face ID Web and check the faces of 2.8 million booked suspects. "All it is, again, is an investigative tool. (The system) says, 'I think it's you.' It doesn't make you guilty,' said Lt. Larry Bryant of the sheriff's Records and Identification Bureau. By using other demographic information like sex and age, he said a detective can narrow the pool of faces the system would pull. The sheriff's department, which runs the county's jail system, has been using Face ID since 2000 but this marks the first time detectives can access it via a Web-based technology. Before, the system was available at computers in certain locations. The sheriff's Homicide Bureau was given one computer as well as the LAPD, Long Beach police and the sheriff's records bureau, according to Bryant. "They didn't get used much,' he said. "If it's not sitting on their desktop, they're not thinking about it.' He said they decided to push for a Web-based technology. Bryant said there are 5.6 million photos in the booking system; 2.8 million of which are photos of people facing front. They only put front photos in the facial recognition system. Face ID is a product of ImageWare Systems in San Diego. "What it is doing is capturing an image,' said Jim Miller, chief executive officer of ImageWare. "The system reduces it to a mathematical equation and searches the database for a mathematical equation that matches or is close.' The system measures the distance between the eyes and the area between the top of the nose and the lower lip. It also takes about 80 measurements within this triangle on the face, Miller added. The cost depends on how many users are on the system. An entry-level system is about $20,000, he said. Miller said law enforcement agencies in Arizona, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Orange County, Fla., San Antonio and Sydney, Australia use the system. So how accurate is Face ID? "Like any picture you and I would take at a family gathering, the quality of the photo affects the math,' Miller said. |
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