Eye-spy begins for NY Police

New York City Police have made moves to tackle identity fraud of arrested individuals through keeping a record of their eyes. Across Manhattan, 21 stations have been set up where suspects will have their irises scanned alongside the traditional mug shot photograph and fingerprinting as a form of identification.

It’s long been known that the patterning of each eye – and specifically the iris – is unique in every individual, and a variety of security and identification applications have been considered for iris-recognition technology. However, devices have previously proved too impractical for everyday use. The scanning devices being used by police are similar in size and appearance to hand-held barcode scanners making them more practical for use.

The introduction of iris-recognition technology in New York comes in the wake of the escape of two prisoners, who were released after they disguised themselves as prisoners on lesser charges. It is hoped the technology will go some way to preventing such incidents happening again.

Civil liberties groups have warned that the technology could face abuse and that ever more personal information about individuals stored by authorities posed a concern. Police have argued however that the scans are no different to mug shot photographs and did not represent a privacy concern. Additional scanning stations are planned for across the New York city area.