Equipped with top-tier biometric tech, Florida police asked to sub for ICE

A recent webinar from Idemia looks at how its cloud-native automated biometric identification system (ABIS) has impacted law enforcement in Florida, where the Volusia Sheriff’s Office has implemented it to enable latent fingerprint searches of country, state and federal databases from a single application. Meanwhile, biometrics are figuring into state politics and policy changes, as its leaders fall in line with the Trump administration on immigration.

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Idemia Storm ABIS enables multiple examiners to work at one time

In a webinar presented by Forensic, Eric Ray, a technical project leader for Idemia Public Security, introduces Storm ABIS, the biometric SaaS product launched in 2021 and currently deployed in Volusia and Washington County, Oregon. Ray says interest has been high, and Idemia expects to deploy the ABIS in three to six more agencies throughout the year.

“The idea with Storm is that Idemia wanted to provide a simple, cloud-native ABIS solution with all the tools that agencies are used to, that’s always up to date, at an affordable price,” he says. Idema’s tested algorithms, which power the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) iris service, remain at the core of the product.

The benefits of the system are its accessibility for remote logins – it’s available on any browser with a web connection – and “that it breaks away from this old model that we’ve been working under for a long time, where the AFIS computer is in a different room and everyone has to share it. Storm is on your computer, and everyone can get on at the same time. You don’t have to move files around. And searches come back really fast.”

The reconfiguration, says Ray, makes it easier and more natural for forensics examiners to use. And it comes with features including automatic encoding, colour quality maps, custom outputs, manual quality control, and so on.

Storm ABIS built by examiners, for examiners, says sheriff’s office

For the Volusia Sheriff’s Office (VSO), located in DeLand, Florida near Daytona Beach, adopting Storm ABIS has meant the capability to search local, state and federal biometric databases from one system for more efficient examination, as well as seamless security integration and a more intuitive user experience. VSO began its engagement with Storm in 2022 and went live with Storm ABIS in November of 2023, but its relationship with Idemia goes back much longer – a preexisting link that made the decision to adopt Storm “a no-brainer.”

“With Storm, we’re able to access it anywhere, meaning we don’t have to transfer files, we don’t have to share workstations, we can mark all the features at once with the auto-encode feature,” says Lindsay Jones, latent print supervisor for the VSO. “In the first two months we saw a 44 percent increase in our latent print searches. We also saw more completed cases.”

The ABIS allowed the VSO latent print unit to work through reductions in staff in tandem with increases in case workload. Now, a few months in, it intends to continue working with Storm and hopes its feedback might help refine subsequent updates.

Florida police, correctional officials apply force with iris, fingerprint biometrics

In Flagler County, the sheriff’s office is now utilizing the Inmate Recognition and Identification System, (IRIS) at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility. WFTV says IRIS, a product of Massachusetts-based BI2 Technologies, “uses advanced biometric technology to capture over 265 characteristics of the human eye, which are unique to every individual.”

Sheriff Rick Staly says “the implementation of IRIS aligns with our commitment to using the best available tools to apprehend criminals. This technology is the ‘new fingerprint technology’ and is already being used by the FBI. Dirtbags, be aware. We have another tool to identify you and capture you!”

DeSantis enables ICE to train state agents, officers for mass deportations

Since “dirtbag” has no formal legal definition, it’s not hard to see how politicians, law enforcement agencies or crazed would-be monarchs might adopt one that is politically popular. Florida Politics has an article about the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) and the 25 new fingerprint readers it’s set to receive at the behest of Kevin Carrico, vice president of the Jacksonville City Council.

Carrico has put forward a bill that would fund the biometric technology, on the grounds that it is necessary to “accurately and efficiently identify and process illegals subject to new laws passed by the Florida Legislature.” He believes the money will help JSO “identify and remove individuals who have violated immigration laws and ensure our city remains a safe place for law-abiding residents.”

Not content to institutionalize cutthroat immigration policies on a local level, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has directed Florida law enforcement to enter into additional Memoranda of Agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on its 287(g) program, enabling local law enforcement officers to perform “functions of immigration enforcement.”

A release from the governor’s office says that “by allowing our state agents and law enforcement officers to be trained and approved by ICE, Florida will now have more enforcement personnel deputized to assist federal partners. That means deportations can be carried out more efficiently, making our communities safer as illegal aliens are removed.”

The agreement leverages the so-called “Jail Enforcement Model,” designed to “identify and process removable aliens – with criminal or pending criminal charges – who are arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies.”

The moves align with the Trump regime’s promise to enact mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. While during his presidential campaign he promised to declare a national emergency at the southern border and deploy the military to achieve it, there is apparently an appetite to recruit local law enforcement to the cause first.