Court rules UK fingerprint misuse

Northrop ruling has implications for UK police

Sarah Arnott

A California court ruled last week that Northrop Grumman is misusing fingerprint identification technology from specialist supplier Cogent in the UK police Ident1 programme.

Ident1 is used by all forces in England and Wales to tie prints found at crime scenes with those already held by the police. It uses matching algorithms to create a list of possible candidates then scrutinised by fingerprint experts.

Ident1 uses two algorithms – one from supplier Sagem, which is Northrop Grumman’s partner in the Ident1 contract, and another from Cogent, used by Ident1’s predecessor the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

Northrop Grumman won the Ident1 deal in 2004, against competition from a rival consortium of Cogent and Lockheed Martin.

Cogent says Northrop had no right to use its technology either in its bid or in the subsequent rollout of the Ident1 system.

‘We are pleased that the court has confirmed Cogent’s position that Northrop never had any right to use our technology in Ident1,’ said Cogent chief executive Ming Hsieh after the ruling.

It is not yet clear what impact the decision will have on UK police. Ident1’s full functionality was originally scheduled to be up and running earlier this year but sources say the timetable has already been extended until July.

A spokesman for Northrop said: ‘We are disappointed with the court’s decision and are reviewing our options. Since the matter is in litigation we will not comment further at this time.’

Other aspects of Cogent’s claim will go to trial in September.

RSS TrackBack URL

Translate: