Officials in Tarrant County, Texas are keeping a closer eye on offenders coming in and out of the county jail these days - literally.  Last year, the county began using a new eye scan recognition system to document the identities of offenders being booked into the jail. 

"We wanted to move beyond strictly fingerprint technology," said Terry Grisham, Executive Administrator for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office. 

According to Grisham, with fingerprints, the staff had to analyze them by hand, or rely on the statewide network to confirm an individual's identity, which was very time consuming.

"We were not getting results back from the state capital in Austin for several hours after we would enter [the fingerprints]," he said.  "It would be hours before we would be able to get the correct information."

This was problematic, especially since some offenders refuse to identify themselves or give officers a fake name when they arrive at the jail.

"A lot of folks hit the jail door and like to lie about who they are," said Jeff Nicholson, Chief Deputy of Technology for the Sheriff's Office.  "If we don't figure out who they are pretty quickly, we invest a lot of time and effort into booking the [wrong] name into our jail [management] application."

To cut down on these misidentifications and the time spent tracking down offenders' true identities, Nicholson turned to biometric technology.

"I wanted something specific to the corrections environment," he said.  "[SecuriMetrics] was the only company I found, basically, that had an interface to the iris recognition equipment for corrections."

Employing Iris Recognition Technology

According to Nicholson, the iris recognition technology the county purchased from SecuriMetrics cost about $45,000 and included a software interface, the server application and handheld devices for the officers to use to take a digital print of the offenders' irises.

"It's a very easy application to learn how to use and a very simple process to operate the equipment," said Nicholson, noting that both eyes are scanned.  "It's believed to have a higher level of accuracy than fingerprints do," he said. 

And it takes far less time than the fingerprint analysis process previously did.

When offenders are booked into the jail, officers scan their irises, using the handheld videogame-sized devices.  The entire process takes only about 30 seconds, Nicholson said.

"The eye scan technology is instantaneous and the database grows everyday," added Grisham.  "We now have the largest database of irises anywhere."

Nicholson estimates that, in the seven months that the technology has been up and running at the county jail, nearly 16,000 offenders have been entered into the iris scan database.  With about 30,000 people being booked into the jail each year, that database will continue to expand, he said. 

Eyeing Release

In addition to storing the iris scans in the jail's database, officers input some basic information about the inmate, like name, race, sex and date-of-birth. 

Keeping track of offenders this way is helpful, especially when it comes to releasing inmates.

"We want to always make sure that we're going to release the right person out of jail," Grisham said.  "[With this technology], we know that person we're about to release is the same person we scanned when [he] arrived at the jail."

Now, Grisham added, the release process for offenders takes a couple of hours versus nearly an entire day before the eye scan technology was being used.  

"We had always analyzed fingerprints by hand and it slowed the release process down tremendously," he said.

According to Grisham, one of the only drawbacks to the technology is that an offender has to be willing to open his eyes in order to record the iris scan.  Overall, though, that has not been an issue.

"The subject has to be somewhat cooperative," Grisham said.  "We've had people who are obstinate and refuse to cooperate, [but we] let them cool off," he said.  "We've had pretty much compliance over time."

Focus on the Future

Aside from offenders getting rowdy from time to time and not submitting to a scan, the only other issue the county has encountered regarding the iris recognition technology is that the iris scan database can not currently share information with the jail's management system.  Nicholson aims to change that in the future, though.

"Right now there's no integration with our jail [management] application, but we're looking at [installing] a new jail application in the next two years, [which will be compatible with the iris scan database]."

But Nicholson has even higher hopes for this type of technology, which he believes will become more commonplace in coming years.

"I can see this one day being out on the street where you confirm people's identities, possibly out in the field," Nicholson said.  "I think we've barely scratched the surface of what not they'll do with the technology.

Resources:

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office (817) 884-1111