For Immediate Release
May 27, 2005
Contacts:
Sheriff Robert Garvey
413-584-5911
Kevin O’Reilly, The CHILD Project
508-224-1600 ext. 318
(Northampton, MA) - The Hampshire County Sheriff’s Office introduced a new system today that will identify and locate missing children and adults through the use of Iris Recognition Biometric Technology.
At a press conference held at his office in Northampton, Hampshire County Sheriff Robert Garvey demonstrated and officially launched The Children’s Identification and Location Database (CHILD) Project. His office will be the first in the nation to install the CHILD Project System.
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.
The enabling iris recognition biometric technology is provided by Iridian Technologies, Inc. of Moorestown, New Jersey. Iridian’s ProofPositive TM certified hardware and software positively determines the identity of an individual by capturing and digitally encoding an image of the child’s iris. In addition to high accuracy that can distinguish between twins or even an individual’s right and left eye, Iridian’s technology is highly scalable to millions of unique records. The system will employ Panasonic Security Systems’ recently introduced BM-ET330 Iris Readers, which feature advanced user guidance technology along with the latest developments in iris recognition technology to deliver fast and accurate system enrollment and authentication. The technology is non-intrusive and an image of the iris is captured by simply looking into the camera.
Sheriff Garvey has used iris biometric recognition technology to track inmates in his correctional facility for a number of years and came up with the idea of expanding the use of the technology to help identify and locate missing children. Working with retired Sheriff Peter Y. Flynn and President of the CHILD Project, Sean Mullin, Sheriff Garvey brought his idea to the National Sheriff’s Association, which endorsed the project in June 2004. Since that time over 1,100 sheriffs across the nation have agreed to participate in the CHILD Project. “Today marks the official beginning of this important project,” said Sheriff Garvey. “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.”Joining Sheriff Garvey at the kick-off was John Bish. John and his wife Magi tragically lost their daughter when she was abducted from her lifeguard job in Warren, Massachusetts. The search for Molly came to a heartbreaking end when her remains were found three years later. John and Magi Bish were determined that no other family should experience the nightmare of missing a child. Several months after Molly disappeared, they established the Molly Bish Foundation, an organization that is devoted to promoting child safety through education and prevention.
Mr. Bish sees the use of iris biometric recognition technology as another important tool in protecting our nation’s children. “We want to assure that no other child, no other family goes through this situation again,” said Mr. Bish.
Frank Fitzsimmons, CEO of Iridian Technologies, noted that enrolling children in an iris recognition program like the CHILD Project is easy and non-intrusive, and provides for very accurate and rapid identification. “We believe iris recognition is setting the standard for biometric identity management, and we are delighted to participate in an innovative program that relies on our technology to help protect our nation’s children.”
The CHILD Project database will be hosted by The Nation’s Missing Children Organization and National Center for Missing Adults (NMCO), a nonprofit agency providing nationwide assistance to law enforcement and families of missing persons. The agency, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, was founded in 1994 and provides a variety of services including advocacy, search assistance, national distribution of information related to missing persons and various programs addressing child safety.
Kym Pasqualini, President and CEO of NMCO said, “This unique and innovative program will fill an important gap in our nation’s ability to quickly, and positively identify missing children and adults.”
“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. “We are pleased to team up with NMCO to provide a technology that can help reunite missing children with their families.” With this official launch, the CHILD Project team will continue to identify other sheriffs’ offices who want to participate in the program and will work with them to secure funding for the system from state and federal agencies and private foundations. More information is available at www.thechildproject.org or www.theyaremissed.org.Iridian Technologies, Inc. of Moorestown, N.J. develops and commercializes software for iris recognition, one of the most accurate biometric identifiers. The holder of US and international patents behind iris recognition technologies, Iridian offers unparalleled security for public-use applications such as simplified passenger travel, border control, national IDs, as well as physical building access and information access.
Iris recognition technology identifies people by the unique patterns of the iris - the colored ring around the pupil of the eye. Iris recognition is the most accurate, non-invasive and easy-to-use biometric for secure identification. For more information, visit www.iridiantech.com.
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