Local Law Enforcement Can for the First Time Electronically Search Full
and Partial Hand Prints from Suspects against State’s Criminal Database
L-1 Identity Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:ID), a leading provider of identity
solutions and services, today announced that the L-1 Biometrics Division
was awarded a new contract with the State of Texas to upgrade existing
L-1 TouchPrint™
live scan systems to incorporate full hand scanners. In addition to
electronic finger and facial images, law enforcement and investigators
across the State can now capture full hand prints which are sent to the
state-wide criminal AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System).
Local law enforcement agencies searching latent palm prints against the
AFIS will have high quality full hand images to search against for
improved matching accuracy. The contract is valued at $2.5 million and
the upgrade was completed by L-1 in April 2009.
“Given the high number of partial and full palm prints left at crime
scenes, we believe that rapidly populating our database with palm print
images will be essential for solving more crimes,” said Mike Lesko,
Deputy Administrator of the Crime Records Service at DPS.
Additionally, use of L-1 full hand live scan systems by law enforcement
agencies in Texas will enable Texas DPS to comply with aspects of the
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, legislation that
established a comprehensive national system for the registration of sex
offenders and offenders against children. The Act requires, among other
things, that local jurisdictions include a photo, fingerprints, and palm
prints as part of the offender registry.
“There is no single mission more important than protecting innocent
people, especially children, from the harm that predators and criminals
can inflict upon them and Texas is at the forefront of ensuring they are
doing everything possible to keep its citizens safe,” said Robert V.
LaPenta, Chairman, President and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions. “We are
a trusted partner to many agencies across Texas, designing and
delivering solutions that help them to solve a wide range of criminal
identity management challenges.”
L-1’s full range of live scan systems offer exceptional image clarity
and accuracy of detail in tenprint, palm, roll and writers’ edge,
resulting in a higher number of AFIS hits, while minimizing the
rejections and the need to re-capture poor quality prints, even in
difficult, high traffic operating conditions and regardless of operator
skill level. Tens of thousands of L-1 live scans are installed across
the U.S.