This report examines the market for law enforcement biometrics in North America. The market for law enforcement biometrics includes fingerprinting systems, other fi nger print recognition systems, and access control systems. AFIS is the largest segment, but non-AFIS devices are gaining ground, with mobile biometric identifi cation devices and face and voice biometrics also seeing strong growth.
Globally, the law enforcement biometrics market is split into four major geographic segments: the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Of these four regions, the US and China are the largest and fastest growing markets. Asia-Pacific will be the second largest region, with growth fueled by India and Australia. This region will grow to nearly US$992.8 million by 2026, which is projected to be the highest share of the global market in 2014.
This report identifies the most significant vendors in the industry.
The study covers both the consumer and business markets and provides market data, custom consulting, and industry intelligence. For example, Fujitsu has integrated Palm Secure into its gearstick, allowing users to access the entire software package without having to go through the trouble of manually changing settings. Moreover, the market report is based on primary and secondary research methodologies, and is based on the company’s best judgment of industry drivers and challenges.
Face recognition technology is poised to become the most widely used surveillance technology, and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies have access to millions of images of law-abiding Americans. The technology has potential to be incorporated into body-worn cameras, identify people in the dark, and match faces with sketches. And in the future, law enforcement officials would like to integrate facial recognition into body-worn cameras and use it to match people with sketches or DNA.
While most users of biometric technology don’t fully understand their capabilities, the technology is already being implemented in law enforcement. For example, law enforcement can arrest people based on light evidence or suspicion. In one recent example, a major US police department searched mug-shot databases based on an eye-witness’s claim that a certain perp resembled a famous figure. The officer then used the celebrity’s picture to conduct a face search.
Despite these concerns, legislation is the best way to limit the use of biometrics for law enforcement.
The General Data Protection Regulation in Europe has already made it clear that biometric data must be collected with consent. California and Illinois both have laws requiring that organizations obtain consent from users before collecting biometric data. In addition to these laws, Facebook was recently fined millions of dollars. Further, San Francisco has banned the use of face recognition technology by law enforcement and other cities are mulling similar laws.
Despite the many benefits of biometrics, marketers must be aware of the risks associated with using these data. To ensure consumer trust, organizations must ensure the security and privacy of their consumers. For that reason, this report examines the use of biometrics and explores the challenges and opportunities associated with this technology in the market. It also examines the potential for marketers to make use of biometrics in law enforcement.