FBI's Next-Gen ID Databank to Store Face Scans

Lockheed Martin is building a massive digital warehouse of criminal information, set to bring facial recognition and eye scans to local law enforcement within 10 years. The FBI may use biometric technology to bolster mug shots, fingerprints and DNA to catch crooks—but privacy advocates say there's reason for law-abiding citizens to worry... The FBI has confirmed that, along with adding palm prints to its existing “ten-print” records, the bureau will have to expand its photo repository. “That could be the basis for our facial recognition,” says Thomas Bush, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division. “And it's not a true biometric [marker], but scars and tattoos, we want to be able to search those nationwide.” Some of that information could come from prisons, where scar and tattoo databases have become increasingly common. But for accurate facial recognition, mug shots aren't the best source of data. Agencies would likely have to start taking photos of suspects from more angles, and at relatively high resolutions.