Digital Image Booth helps Police improve identification and verification
(17/01/2008)

Hertfordshire Constabulary is the first UK force to buy the Digital Image Booth custody image capture system in its newest form, with an in-built, touch-screen PC. During February ten booths will be installed into custody centres throughout the county, which will allow custody staff to capture consistently high-quality facial images that help to improve identification and verification across all police applications.

DW Group’s Digital Image Booth (DIB) captures facial images that meet the standards specified in the Facial Images National Database (FIND) project run by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). Ultimately, FIND will allow users to receive, store and retrieve images nationally, benefiting many areas of policing. The DIB FIND-compliant image capture system, which was launched last year, is already being successfully operated by 3 English forces.

Hertfordshire’s decision to order ten DIB’s is an important part of a wider programme to improve its custody management, which includes the building of the UK’s first 40-cell custody centre complete with remand court in Hatfield, due to be completed in July 2008. C.I. Richard Beechey, Force Custody Project Manager, commented: “It is clear that the Digital Image Booth is an efficient and cost-effective solution that will help us to meet FIND standards and improve our custody management. Ultimately, I believe it will make a valuable contribution to policing performance across the county.”

By integrating a PC, built to police specifications, with a toughened 15” touch-screen and drop-down keyboard, the latest DIB provides a totally self-contained image capture unit. Custody staff can quickly and efficiently capture a quality-checked image, input the required data and send it to the main operating system; they can also enjoy more space in the often limited area of the custody suite.

Hertfordshire live-trialled the DIB at its busy Stevenage custody centre, and results quickly showed a significant improvement in image quality, time saving and better-motivated staff. Steve Raines, Senior Fingerprint Officer in the Service Department, who monitored the trial was impressed with the booth’s ease of use, particularly the simple red/green traffic light system for the success or failure of a captured image: “Training is very straightforward and we were fully operational virtually straight away. Many of our previous images were very poor due to user error and outdated equipment, but after only 2 weeks using the booth we had captured 300 images with more than 95% of images being FIND compliant on the first take.”

Patrick Leigh, Development & Production Director for DW Group, is delighted with the progress of the Digital Image Booth: “When the FIND Police Image Standards were issued we wanted to provide a simple, yet effective solution. The booth is a reliable image capture unit with sophisticated software that will integrate into any force’s operating system; there are minimal environmental requirements and it is virtually unbreakable.”

Three forces are already seeing the benefits of this technology-based solution and Patrick is confident that the Digital Image Booth will soon set the nationwide standard in digital image capture for identification and verification.

Prices for the Digital Image Booth start at £5500.00 + Vat, (from £7950.00 +Vat for in-built touch-screen PC version) which includes full installation, set-up, training and 12-month on-site warranty.