Visionics Wins Tampa Law Work

Visionics Corp. will integrate facial identification technology into a closed-circuit television system to support law enforcement efforts by the Tampa, Fla., Police Department.

Visionics of Jersey City, N.J., will provide the Tampa police with a
proprietary facial recognition software engine, known as FaceIt, that allows computers to rapidly detect and recognize faces.

The FaceIt system will be deployed via 36 cameras that will be installed in the entertainment district known as Ybor City in downtown Tampa. The system automatically scans the faces of people passing in front of the cameras and matches those images against photographs of criminals held in a database at the police control room.

The company declined to disclose the value of the contract.

The database is maintained by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Tampa Police Department. When fully operational, it will contain about 30,000 images of persons with outstanding felony warrants.

To meet privacy guidelines, the police will post signs warning the cameras are in use, retain images of known offenders only and discard non-matching images.