Identity tech and biometric solution provider IDEMIA has expanded its partnership with INTERPOL , providing an enhanced Multibiometric Identification System to support its 196 member countries. Building on a collaboration of more than 20 years with IDEMIA, INTERPOL has taken the next step to combat international crime alongside its member countries, announcing the launch of its enhanced BioHUB, powered by IDEMIA’s newest Multibiometric Identification System (MBIS).

IDEMIA’s Multibiometric Identification System and its partnership with INTERPOL As per the press release information, IDEMIA’s MBIS latest version, MBIS 5, integrates new-gen algorithms which provide an increased matching accuracy rate with a shorter response time and a more user-friendly interface. The first phase of its deployment to upgrade the identification of potential Persons of Interest (POIs) for police investigations has been operational since October 2023, and the second phase, set to be rolled out in the following two years, will see the tool extended to border control points. The system will then be capable of performing up to 1 million forensic searches daily, including fingerprints, palm prints and portraits, making it among the highest-performing automated biometric identification systems on the market.

Currently, INTERPOL has 196 member countries and enables law enforcement agencies worldwide to cooperate to make the world safer, with its high-tech infrastructure of technical and operational support helping meet the increasing challenge of combating crime in the 21st century. Facial recognition comes as an important and quickly evolving technology that has opened multiple new opportunities to identify individuals and solve crimes. INTERPOL opted for IDEMIA’s advanced facial recognition capabilities in 2016 to create the INTERPOL Face Recognition System (IFRS).

The IFRS contains face images from over 170 countries, and following its launch, thousands of terrorists, criminals, fugitives, POIs, and missing persons have been identified. In 2019, INTERPOL renewed its contract with IDEMIA to upgrade the current system and transform it into a Multibiometric Identification System (MBIS). The IDEMIA – INTERPOL collaboration started in 1999 when the former delivered the original Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), designed to simplify the cooperation between police forces from member countries by providing them with access to global police tools and services, namely forensics, fingerprint evidence and the exchange of forensic data to support international investigations.

AFIS enables authorised users in member countries to view, submit, and cross-check such records leveraging INTERPOL’s secure global police communications network. INTERPOL representatives advised that like how criminals use increasingly innovative and sophisticated methods to avoid detection, law enforcement must leverage the latest advancements in tech, especially in biometric security, to better combat all transnational crime forms. Per their statement, INTERPOL’s enhanced partnership with IDEMIA is set to further help member countries better protect their borders and communities.

More to this point, IDEMIA officials expressed pride in collaborating with INTERPOL again and continuing to make the world a safer place, adding that the delivery of the new MBIS will provide INTERPOL with access to advanced fingerprint, palm print, and face identification technologies, enabling it and member countries to identify persons of interest in an increasingly expedited manner. .