Identification Bureau is one of the specialist Bureaux of the Hong Kong Police Force providing the main professional fingerprint examination, DNA collection, firearms examination and photographic services to the Force and other law enforcement agencies. Two years ago, the Bureau was working closely with the 3M Cogent to digitize the fingerprint and palmprint taking process, with objective to increase the efficiency of the Bureau. During the fourth quarter of 2014, the 3M Cogent LiveScan solution was fully implemented in the Police Force and other law enforcement agencies. The frontline users expressed unanimously favorable reviews towards the system with high satisfaction rate as their efficiency at work was greatly increased. It is pleased to note that the system was awarded a Bronze Prize (Internal Service) in the “Civil Service Outstanding Service Award Scheme 2015”.

In the traditional ink-and-paper methodology of collecting fingerprint or palmprint, the subjects’ hands are stained with ink. If there is any error, the tedious and time-consuming process has to be carried out again. The fingerprint forms are then delivered to the Identification Bureau by dispatch for checking and verification - the time to return the checking result is inevitably delayed.

Ergonomic focus kiosks with FBI certified livescanners were deployed in Police Force and other law enforcement agencies. After using the 3M Cogent LiveScan system, the process of collecting fingerprints and palmprints through digital scanning becomes far quicker and cleaner. The electronic fingerprint files can now be transmitted in a blink of an eye to the Identification Bureau for verification, hugely reduced the labour time and cost in delivering the paper-based materials. The Bureau can also produce results to frontline users within half an hour in serious cases, substantially increase the efficiency in identification, investigation and prosecution, and greatly enhance the effectiveness in protecting people’s lives and properties.

The new system also gives a green touch to the Bureau by greatly reducing the paper consumption. The system did alleviate the storage space problem as the storage capacity of the fingerprint forms is expected to reach its maximum within a few years time.

The 3M Cogent advanced biometric solutions are easy to use, highly accurate and reliable, and help law enforcement agencies around the globe to fight crime and maintain public security.