Iris-Scanning Debut
Forget about the soul. The eyes soon will be windows to a police record. Reported in the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Davis County Sheriff’s Office on Monday debuted a new iris-scanning technology it will use to track and identify convicted criminals. It also could be used to find missing children or senior citizens.
The Davis sheriff’s office is the first of 45 sheriff’s offices nationwide to receive the technology, which uses a camera to take a high-quality image of the colored portion of the eye that surrounds the black pupil.
Images are scanned into a computer and become part of an online national database to which Davis County also has gained access. A $10,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant through the National Sheriffs’ Association paid for the technology.
“We’re anxious to start using this new high-tech tool,” Sheriff Bud Cox said.
Iris scanning will help public-safety agencies identify and track criminals more quickly, effectively and easily than traditional methods of fingerprinting or testing DNA, said BI2 Technologies President Sean Mullin, whose company makes the equipment.
Iris scanning produces more precise biological information than fingerprinting, he said, adding finger pads can be altered to change the print. The database increases “the ability to share data not just in Utah and not just in the region, but across the United States,” Mullin said.
The technology’s use has grown during the past four years. It now is used in nearly 200 agencies across the country, he said, noting there are nearly 300,000 convicted criminals in the database.Davis County said it will begin scanning the eyes of Davis County Jail inmates. It also will make the technology available to families who’d like their children’s or elderly parents’ information to be part of the nationwide database for use if they become lost or confused and unable to identify themselves.
Children’s scans would be kept until they turn 18 (or longer if the child is missing or has a medical condition that hampers their self-awareness). Iris scans of the elderly would be kept until age 125.
Cox said parents given copies of their children’s fingerprints at safety fairs can lose them. The new technology offers a quick way for parents to help safety officers identify their children.
A Salt Lake City civil liberties attorney urges caution. He doesn’t believe the government should collect data about children.
“With regard to the criminal, it makes sense the government maintain that record,” attorney Brian Barnard said, “but in regard to the innocent child, let the parent keep [the iris scan].”
He called a national database of children’s information “government encroachment,” and added there is potential for the government to misuse the data.
Davis County has no plans to make the scans mandatory, but rather would make them available for interested parents at community events and county fairs.
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