ACIC introduces biometric identification system via IDEMIA Public Security

IDEMIA Public Security (IPS), a provider of biometric-based solutions, has announced the go-live of NAFIS NextGen, a biometric identification system in Australia, in partnership with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC).

NAFIS is the only national fingerprint and palmprint system in Australia, supporting law enforcement agencies with IDEMIA Public Security’s biometric matching capabilities, including advanced latent fingerprint processing and integration.

The system is searched more than 12,000 times daily by Australian law enforcement agencies.

NAFIS NextGen serves as ACIC’s renamed version of IPS’ Multi-Biometric Identification System and is IPS' first international cloud-based Automated Biometric Identification System deployment.

IPS' claimed the new system offers increased matching effectiveness and improved operational efficiency through automated processing of fingerprint images, as well as allowing desktop access via Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

NAFIS NextGen works off a centralised application architecture and promotes interoperability between the Department of Home Affairs’ Enterprise Biometric Identification Services and NAFIS, exposing a set of interfaces to each other to enable biometric matching against each other’s fingerprint data holding and reducing the duplication of data in both systems.

The system has transitioned to a secure cloud-hosted environment powered by Microsoft Azure and operating under Australian Government protected-level controls.

“I’m proud to continue our partnership with the ACIC and enable a secure, efficient way to aid Australian law enforcement agencies in helping solve crimes by matching crime scene evidence to persons of interest when every second counts,” said Thibaut Sartre, SVP of justice and public safety at IDEMIA Public Security.

“This offering demonstrates IDEMIA Public Security’s strong capability to deploy biometric identification solutions in various modes, whether that’s on premise or in the cloud, with market leading algorithms and upmost security features to meet the flexible needs of various customers and markets.”