Biometric Research Will Help Catch Criminals


John Vinson By: John Vinson

Criminals who thought finger prints were the only cause for concern for being caught, should think again. The FBI has announced a joint venture with Lockheed Martin to create a new database for identifying physical characteristics among criminals and terrorists.

This isn’t the first time that the two have joined together in the fight against wrong doing, as Lockheed Martin developed the first fingerprint database for the FBI. The FBI has given Lockheed Martin $1 billion in funding for their research and development of the new technology.

With the new database, the FBI hopes to not only be able to identify criminals with fingerprints but also with tattoos, facial shapes, and iris patterns. Judy Marks, president of Lockheed’s Transport and Security Solutions division speaks on this new development, “We’re tremendously pleased to partner with the agency once again to deliver the next quantum leap in capability.”

Not everyone is smiling about this new technology, and Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Technology and Liberty Project explains why, “It’s the beginning of the surveillance society where you can be tracked anywhere, any time and all your movements, and eventually all your activities will be tracked and noted and correlated.”

The project is estimated to run aslong as 10 years, as not only does the technology have to be developed but also be put into use as criminals are identified.

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