Police in Australia's Northern Territory government have deployed a facial recognition solution developed by NEC to aid their law enforcement investigations.Deployment of the NeoFace Reveal solution follows a trial of the technology in early 2015, according to a statement.The NEC system has already helped Northern Territory Police identify hundreds of individuals by enhancing the value of closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage for investigation purposes, according to the press release.”This new facial recognition software has already helped police identify or eliminate suspects and it is exciting to see it move to the next phase,” said Adam Giles Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.The system allows personnel in Northern Territory Police to rapidly search through their database of photos and match against any image or CCTV footage, as well as photos taken from body-worn camera videos, drones and phone images. The chief advantage of face recognition over fingerprint identification is that face images can be captured from a distance without touching the person being identified.There are currently 190 cameras in the network monitored by the police department's CCTV unit, in addition to the recently deployed mobile CCTV units that can be moved on-demand to 'hot spots' and major public events. The government has also issued 1330 iPads to police officers and installed satellite communications in 51 police vehicles in remote locations.So far, 100,000 images have been copied into the system database from existing Police information holdings.”Footage or images captured on CCTV footage are submitted to NT Police's facial recognition team who can load it into the facial recognition system for analysis and comparison with existing images in the database,” said Chandler.During the initial trial in early 2015, police used the system to successfully identify around 300 individuals from photos and CCTV footage, helping police solve crimes and prevent threats to safety.”The technology is helping reduce investigation times by enabling investigators to quickly identify or rule out suspects soon after a crime has been committed,” said Mr Chandler.”It could also assist police to identify missing persons and also those in the community who suffer from Alzheimer's or other similar health issues to assist police in getting them the care they need.”
Australia’s Northern Territory police deploy NEC’s NeoFace
