Namibian Police Force deploy automatic facial and fingerprint identification system

Summary
In 2016, Namibian Police Force became one of the first police forces in Southern Africa to launch an automated fingerprinting and facial recognition system (N-ABIS). So far the system has been used only for the issuance of police certificates. However the presence of the system could suggest wider usage, in particular as the police also use a network of surveillance cameras in Windhoek.

Details

Products and Institutions:

Product Deployed	X
Institutions⠉
Datasets	X
Search software	X

Status and Events:

Status	Ongoing
Events	Start (6 July 2016, Documented, , No description)
Start Date
End Date

Users:

Involved Entities	X
Managed by	X
Used by	X

Location:

City	X
Country⠉

Description[ ]

The system was provided by Orion Technologies.

N-ABIS was developed at a cost of N$40 million over a period of two years by Orion Technologies and Engineering Systems Africa (Otesa), a Namibian company 2

It has resulted in a database of fingerprints and facial images.

N-ABIS is capable of capturing live scans of fingerprints and also uses facial recognition, comparing it in seconds against millions of scans in the database, said police Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga. “The waiting for conduct certificates for months is now history, as it will now take only two weeks to produce a police conduct certificate,” he said. Ndeitunga explained that the system was largely procured to address the public outcry on the delay in obtaining certificates of conduct from the police and obtaining criminal records on outstanding criminal cases for court proceedings [CiteRef::namibianPoliceLauchAutomated2016]]

References

^ x
^ "Police lauch automated biometric identification system". (2016) <https://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?page=archive-read&id=152971> Accessed: 2022-11-28

Namibian Police Force deploy automatic facial and fingerprint identification system
Excluded from graph	,\|value\|value}}
Deployment Status	Ongoing
Deployment Start Date
Deployment End Date
Events	* uses Record type Property:Has event Start (6 July 2016, Documented, , No description)
City	,\|x\|x}}
Country	Namibia
Involved Entities	,\|x\|x}}
Keywords	,\|x\|x}}
Technology Deployed	,\|x\|x}}
Information Certainty	Documented
Primary sources	,\|x\|1}}
Datasets Used	,\|x\|x}}
Deployment Type	,\|x\|x}}
runs search software	,\|x\|x}}
managed by	,\|x\|x}}
used by	,\|x\|x}}
Potentially used by
Information Certainty	0
Summary	In 2016, Namibian Police Force became one of the first police forces in Southern Africa to launch an automated fingerprinting and facial recognition system (N-ABIS). So far the system has been used only for the issuance of police certificates. However the presence of the system could suggest wider usage, in particular as the police also use a network of surveillance cameras in Windhoek.