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Orange County Crime Lab Using New Fingerprint Detection Technology

Wallin & Klarich

Recently, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Crime Laboratory began its official rollout of a new fingerprint identification system. Known as Morpho Biometric Identification Solution (or MorphoBIS), this technology can be used to identify people from not only fingerprints, but from palmprints and any other location on the hand.

Developed by electronics company MorphoTrak, the MorphoBIS began as an entry in a government procurement competition. MorphoTrak already supplies the Federal Bureau of Investigation with biometric technology for the agency’s Next Generation Identification system, giving an accuracy improvement of three times the prior system and introducing palm print IDs.1 This technology could have an impact on how criminal cases are handled in Orange County.

How Does MorphoBIS Work?

Biometric identification systems use permanent human characteristics to identify a potential suspect at a crime scene. Ridges formed on your hand are developed from birth and the patterns of these ridges remain for life.2 If you touch an object and leave a pattern, your unique print can be identified and stored by biometric identification systems. MorphoBIS is unique among ID systems by being the first to include searches of “Major Case Prints” – all the friction ridge areas across the entire surface of the hand.3

The MorphoBIS suite is a comprehensive criminal identification solution which includes a number of the latest features for accuracy and efficiency. Some features are:

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Morpho’s algorithms were ranked first in fingerprint accuracy for image-only latent searches.5

How Will MorphoBIS Affect Criminal Cases in Orange County?

The OC Crime Lab provides forensic analysis to law enforcement agencies across Orange County. The MorphoBIS was first installed at the Crime Lab in October 2014 and has undergone numerous test runs under real world conditions.6 In a statement released by Lisa Zinn, Crime Lab Assistant Director, the high volume processing and database capability of the MorphoBIS is already proving to increase efficiency by allowing forensic analysts to divert their efforts onto other tasks while the identification system analyzes data. The accuracy of MorphoBIS also contributes to solving cold cases by allowing successful identification from even the smallest of prints. However, like current fingerprint technology, the crime lab will have to already have your prints in the database in order to recognize you.

Call the Criminal Defense Attorneys at Wallin & Klarich

If you are facing criminal charges, you should contact our experienced attorneys at Wallin & Klarich right away. Our skilled attorneys have over 30 years of experience successfully defending our clients facing criminal charges. We are confident that we can help you achieve the best possible outcome in your case.

We have offices in Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, Torrance, Orange County, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, West Covina and Victorville. Wherever you live or work, you can find an experienced Wallin & Klarich criminal defense attorney available to help you.

Call us at (888) 280-6839 for a free telephone consultation. We will get through this together.

1. [http://article.wn.com/view/2013/07/09/Biometric_Technology_Supplied_by_MorphoTrak_for_FBI_NGI_to_T/]↩
2. [http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=12]↩
3. [http://www.bloomberg.com/article/2015-06-22/aDkU0LLv3Lg8.html]↩
4. [http://www.morpho.com/en/public-security/investigate/morphobis-state-art-automated-biometric-identification-systems-abis-criminal-identification]↩
5. [http://www.marketwatch.com/story/orange-county-crime-lab-accepts-morpho-biometric-identification-solution-2015-06-22]↩
6. [http://www.biometricupdate.com/201506/morphotrak-provides-orange-county-crime-lab-with-biometric-identification-solution]↩