SA Police looks to NEC for $780,000 facial recognition tech

The South Australian Police (SAPOL) has selected NEC Australia for a $780,000 facial recognition software contract.

The software will improve the police department's ability to search, scan and monitor images and videos of suspects against its offender's database.

"The facial recognition technology can also enhance our existing CCTV network in the future by extracting faces in real time and instantaneously matching them against a watch list of individuals. The technology will also be used in missing person cases," according to a statement from the Premier of South Australia's office.

The system, which will support forensic, investigative and frontline operations and also enable the search for missing persons, is based on NEC's NeoFace software. The technology also works with poor quality photographs and video streams, according to the vendor.

NEC Australia chief operating officer Mike Barber said: "The strength of NEC’s NeoFace technology lies in its tolerance of poor quality images and surveillance video, which allows law enforcement authorities to use evidence previously considered of little or no value in order to achieve higher rates of identification."

NEC's research and development team is working with SAPOL to develop applications that meet its operational requirements.

This investment follows a recent $16.1 million state budget increase in the number of frontline police for South Australia.

Police minister Peter Malinauskas said: "Technology has an increasingly vital role in policing, and as technology evolves into the future, so too will the way our police force operates. Our police budget is at the highest level in history, with more frontline police soon to be on the beat than ever before."