New Tattoo Database Helps Police Track Suspects
When searching for someone potentially involved in a crime, the police of yesteryear went door to door, showing pictures of suspects and “people of interest” around in the hopes of getting information. It was a slow and tedious process, and often relied on luck. In this day and age, technology has made locating people much easier for law enforcement all over the globe. And the recent development of a tattoo database designed by an MSU professor is only going to help that along.
Anil K. Jain, professor of computer science and engineering at Michigan State University, began work on a Tattoo database in 2009. With funding from the FBI, he started developing Tattoo-ID, a program that would help change the way law enforcement searches for suspects. Â The program conducts high speed searches of tattoos in booking photos, along with many other sources, and provides law enforcement with distinguishing tattoos to identify suspects with.
According to Jain, this particular program makes sense for law enforcement. Current statistics reveal that about one third of young people today have tattoos. Additionally, tattoos are often used as identifiers for some of the largest criminal gangs. With this program, police can know right away when booking someone, if they have a gang affiliation.
The notion of noting and keeping track of tattoos and other identifiers on suspects and criminals isn’t a new practice. However, due to the lack of a detailed centralized database, it was incredibly difficult for law enforcement to search for information about a potential suspectâs tattoos.
Previously, any tattoos noted by law enforcement were stored in files with a one or two word description, like “spiderweb”, “wolf” or “playing cards”. This made searching very hard, as many tattoos are actually made up of many pictures merged together. Some include words, some are colorful, and some are traditional. So searching through a database with only a one word description means that very few matches could be found.
Tattoo-ID, however, doesn’t use descriptions. The program compares images of tattoos – photos taken when someone is booked – and stores them in a comprehensive database. Anyone searching later on for a particular tattoo only has to scan in the picture of the tattoo they want to find, and the program will search through thousands of files to find an exact match.
Jain will be the first to admit that it’s not an exact science, as a tattoo could be photographed in different lighting from a different angle and the program may not be able to match it. But he is certain that it will be a good tool for law enforcement. Especially when used in conjunction with other identifying information, like fingerprints or facial recognition.
Jain, who is a Distinguished Professor at MSU and has been made an Honorary Professor at universities in both China and Korea, is widely known for his contributions to the fields of pattern recognition and biometrics. He has published numerous books on facial and fingerprint recognition and biometrics.