Criminal-ABIS (Estonia)
Type: Law Enforcement
Technical information:
| Full name | |
|---|---|
| Country | Estonia |
| Contents | Facial Images Fingerprints |
| Images | |
| Individuals | |
| Runs database software | |
| URL"URL" is a type and predefined property provided by Semantic MediaWiki to represent URI/URL values. | |
| Related Technology |
Developers and Users:
| Developed by | Ministry of Interior (Estonia) |
|---|---|
| Owning institution | |
| Custodian institution |
Description[edit | ]
As of October 2020, FR has not been implemented in Estonia. However, preparations to implement FR for the investigation of crime are underway. Technically, FR functionality will be available on a multimodal ABIS. The ABIS, procured in 2020, will be used as a central biometric repository for storing fingerprint and facial image data collected by the state during both criminal and civil proceedings. The criminal and civil datasets will be logically separated in ABIS and are referred to as the criminal-ABIS and the civil-ABIS.
The collection of facial images for the criminal-ABIS will start once amendments to the law have been implemented and a technical solution is in place. The criminal-ABIS will not be populated with images previously collected for criminal investigation purposes. Final decisions have yet to been taken but, most probably, facial images will be captured from suspects, accused and convicted persons for the prevention and detection of criminal offences. Typically, they will be captured alongside fingerprints and DNA.
The facial data collection and FR are expected to launch by the beginning of 2022. The civil-ABIS will be populated with facial images from existing databases that are used in various document procedures. The Estonian legal framework currently allows the civil fingerprint database to be accessed for solving the most serious crimes, and the same principle will probably be applied for facial images.
Therefore, it is likely that at least some of the facial images that are collected for civil purposes will be available for FR searches in criminal investigations. At this time, only manual 1:1 facial image comparisons are performed by face experts at the Estonian Forensic Science Institute. 1
In 2017, the Government of Estonia decided to establish a multimodal ABIS. It is intended that ABIS will be used as a centralized database for storing all the biometric data collected by the state. In the beginning, ABIS will include two biometric modalities — fingerprints and facial data. Nevertheless, the possibility of adding other modalities to the database in the future is being considered. 1
References
- a b "Summary Report of the project “Towards the European Level Exchange of Facial Images” (TELEFI)". (2021) <https://www.telefi-project.eu/sites/default/files/TELEFI_SummaryReport.pdf> Accessed: 2021-03-12