The Dominican Republic has reported the arrest of 843 fugitives and criminal suspects in absentia in just four months using the National Police’s new face biometrics system, Biometric Update shares with its readers.
.
Law enforcement on patrol compared live photos of individuals with document images using a mobile app. The “Citizen Purging and Biometric Identification System” reportedly can issue warnings when a scanned individual has a pending arrest warrant. It can also flag if they have a criminal record or own firearms.
According to a National Police press release, the facial recognition system was installed in June 2022 in 2,087 police phones. These are connected to a government database with over 10 million records, operated by the Central Electoral Board. That number is expected to reach 6,000 nationwide in the first quarter of 2023.
The system is part of a broader initiative to modernize the Dominican police forces.
Biometric Update also reports that the Dominican Republic is implementing a program to change passports to biometric passports.
Read more in Spanish:
National Police
Biometric Update
15 December 2022