Story County, Iowa Sheriff's Office Debuts New Technology to Protect Children and Seniors

For Immediate Release
August 14, 2008

Lt. Jeff Dodd
SCSO
Office: 515-382-7474

Contact:
Sean G. Mullin
BI2 Technologies
Office: 508-224-1600 ext. 17
Cell: 617-803-1644

Story County, Iowa Sheriff's Office Debuts New Technology to Protect Children and Seniors
Iris Recognition Biometric Technology Installation will be First in Iowa

(Nevada, IA) - The Story County Sheriff's Office introduced a new system today at 10:30 AM that will identify and locate missing children and adults through the use of Iris Recognition Biometric Technology.

At a press conference held at the Story County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada, Iowa, Sheriff Paul H. Fitzgerald officially launched The Child Project (Children’s Identification and Location Database Project) and Senior Safety Net systems. His office will be the first in Iowa to install the CHILD Project and Senior Safety Net Systems.

The CHILD Project is a secure nationwide network and registry that enables law enforcement and social service agencies to locate and positively identify missing children and adults with iris biometric recognition technology. Through this network, the CHILD Project will compare the unique features contained in the iris against a database of individuals who voluntarily enroll throughout the country to determine identity. Participation is entirely voluntary, just as it is now with fingerprint and photo ID card programs

Iris recognition biometric technology positively determines the identity of an individual by capturing a high-resolution digital photograph of an individual’s iris. The technology can tell the difference between twins or even an individual’s right and left eye. The technology is non-intrusive. An image of the iris is captured by simply looking into the camera.

“Today marks the official beginning of this important project in Iowa,” said Sheriff Fitzgerald. “I am proud that we are the first location in Iowa to implement this innovative technology and pleased that we are joining a national network of Sheriffs in 35 other states to better protect our children and seniors. It is my hope that over the coming years every sheriff in the nation will have one of these systems at their disposal to help identify, locate and reunite missing individuals with their families.”

The system, which costs $9,995, was provided to the Story County Sheriff’s Office through the generous donation of an anonymous donor.

Sheriff Fitzgerald said, “I am very pleased to be able to make this remarkable technology available to the citizens of Story County at no cost to our taxpayers.”

“According to U.S. Department of Justice studies, on average, more than 2,000 children are reported missing every day across the nation and there are currently over 47,000 active missing adult cases,” said Sean Mullin, president of The Child Project. “Sheriff Fitzgerald is nationally recognized as one of the nation’s most innovative Sheriffs. We are honored that he will be implementing The Child Project and Senior Safety Net in Story County. This is just one more example of his commitment to improving public safety.”