New device attaches to smartphones and allows police to perform iris scanning, fingerprinting, and facial recognition.

MORIS, or Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, is a small device that attaches to a standard iPhone and allows the user to perform mobile iris scanning, fingerprinting, and facial recognition. Developed by BI2 Technologies, this device was recently made available to law enforcement agencies in America.

This article discusses the Fourth Amendment implications arising from the use of such a device, and asks whether a reasonable expectation of privacy exists in one's irises while in public spaces. The article explores past Supreme Court Fourth Amendment jurisprudence regarding the use of technology to enhance senses, abandonment, and the plain view doctrine in an attempt to determine when mobile iris scans would and would not be allowed by the Fourth Amendment.

The article also undertakes a state-specific analysis, asking whether the South Carolina Constitution offers any additional protection against the use of mobile iris scanners. Finally, the article raises a number of concerns regarding mobile iris scanners (and MORIS in particular), and offers suggestions for addressing the concerns. 
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2125986

The King County Sheriff's Office has started using pocket-sized fingerprint scanners.

Seattle - His cop's sixth sense told Deputy Ryan Abbott something just wasn't right about the woman at the SeaTac check-cashing business.

The King County sheriff's deputy had been summoned to the store by employees who believed the woman might be trying to cash a stolen check.

She handed Abbott her driver's license with photo, but a computer check revealed the woman had no criminal history — not exactly the kind of person who would typically be passing a stolen check.

Still, recalled Abbott, "I was suspicious of her ID and the fact that when we ran the name we didn't get a (criminal) record."

That's when Abbott pulled out a device about the size of a smartphone and asked the woman if he could scan her fingerprints. Within 30 seconds Abbott had the woman's real name and learned she was wanted on two felony warrants for identity theft.

Even in the increasingly computer-reliant field of law enforcement, the MorphoIDent portable fingerprint scanner is being hailed as "the next step in helping to fight crime" by King County Sheriff Steve Strachan. The device allows cops in the field to take two images of a suspect's fingerprints, which are transmitted, via Bluetooth, to the deputy's in-car computer, where they are then run through King County's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), a database of more than 700,000 prints taken in the county.

Within 30 seconds the device will reveal whether a person's fingerprints are on file, either as a wanted person or as someone with a criminal record.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington, for one, wants to make sure use of the devices is closely monitored.

"This technology should not be deployed without formal restrictions on its use — regulations that ensure that biometric data on innocent people are not stored, and that limit their use to situations where the police have probable cause that a suspect has committed a crime," Shankar Narayan, legislative director of the ACLU branch, wrote in an email.

Narayan added that "criminal justice databases are rife with error. The databases that these devices rely upon are often error-filled, and these devices may intensify the consequences of such inaccuracies."

In response, Strachan said, "We will certainly be attentive to issues related to privacy rights and civil rights." 

He said the Sheriff's Office will be working closely with the ACLU before putting more devices into use.

Gillespie, of King County AFIS, said the portable machines do not keep the fingerprints on file.

In the 10 months he's been using MorphoIDent, Abbott estimates that he has used it almost every day he has been on duty. Deputies from across the county have called on him to help identify uncooperative suspects as well.

"I use it any time we have questions about somebody's ID or if they don't have a license," Abbott said.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019468300_fingerprints19m.html

MorphIDent - "Truth in the palm of your hand the best in mobile identification."(pdf.)
http://www.morphotrak.com/MorphoTrak/MorphoTrak/CJ/MorphoIdent/MorphoIdent_op_123010.pdf 

Device helps Phoenix-area police check fingerprints faster.

The driver of a Ford Mustang was pinned in his car in west Phoenix, the victim of a fatal collision with a driver police suspect was impaired.

A Phoenix police sergeant used the latest technological advancement in law enforcement, a MorphoIDent, which is about the size of an iPhone, to scan the index finger on both of the victim's hands. The sergeant plugged the device into the computer in his patrol car. A minute or two later, the screen flashed the victim's name: Ronald A. Lowe, 32, of Phoenix.

"We're not always dealing with criminals and dangerous people. We are dealing with victims," said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman. "It makes us more efficient in the positive identification of the victim and moving forward to the next of kin."

The MorphoIDent saved the delay caused by traditional identification methods, which could include fingerprinting the victim and sending the prints to the records section, or having the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office identify him or her.

The device is the latest example of technological advancements that have revolutionized police work, making suspects easier to track and evidence more readily available. Police say the device makes it possible to quickly match fingerprints with those stored in a statewide databank. It does not store or capture fingerprints for other purposes.

The Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Glendale police departments are using the devices in a free pilot program launched by the manufacturer, MorphoTrak of Alexandria, Va., said Eve Fillon, a company spokeswoman.

MorphoTrak, a division of Safran, a French company based in Paris, is hoping Valley agencies eventually will make the same decision as Tucson police, who ordered MorphoIDent devices after an earlier pilot program.

But efficiency and accuracy don't come cheap. Each unit has a list price of $1,717, although the actual per-unit cost depends upon the number of devices purchased, Fillon said. http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20120830phoenix-area-police-device-check-fingerprints-faster.html?nclick_check=1