Cogent Systems was awarded as the sole winner for all six components of the UK National MobileID service (formerly known as Mobile Identification at Scene or MIDAS).
Cogent Systems was awarded as the sole winner for all six components of the UK National MobileID service (formerly known as Mobile Identification at Scene or MIDAS).
This award followed a year-long competitive process conducted by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), involving multiple vendors to ensure that the best solution and most qualified vendor would bring the best value to the UK police forces. The initial award is valued at approximately US$25 million over a three-year term through April 2013, with the option of two one-year extensions.
Cogent will provide an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) of the UK National Fingerprint Collection along with all services to provide a nationwide mobile biometric identification system available to all police forces in the U.K. Cogent will provide a framework catalog and an online ordering system for police forces to purchase a variety of biometric capture devices to suit a broad range of policing needs. The contract proposals were evaluated on the basis of 10,000 mobile devices being deployed throughout the period of the contract, but the actual number may be more or less. In addition to the AFIS and catalogue of Cogent and third-party mobile devices, Cogent will provide services for device accreditation, device and user authentication, integration with existing mobile communications gateways, a Cogent national gateway and a full suite of service management provisions. The contract also includes options to expand the service for additional agencies and other capabilities.
Cogent will provide the entire end-to-end mobile identification solution for the UK police forces to support officer safety and improve efficiency of operations while at the same time providing near real-time identification in the field. Cogent's latest matching technology will provide the latest technology to meet the demanding response time and accuracy requirements. The use of mobile devices combined with the AFIS system will enable police to quickly scan an individual's fingerprints in the field and perform an identification check against the national fingerprint database. Officers will save time by reducing the number of trips to the police station, enabling them to spend more time in the field and increasing the number of offenders brought to justice.
"From hours to minutes, advances in fingerprinting technology are helping the police to identify one person from many," said Chief Constable Peter Neyroud, Chief Executive of the NPIA
"Identification is crucial to police investigations and giving officers the ability to do this on-the-spot within minutes is giving them more time to spend working in their communities, helping to fight crime, bringing more offenders to justice and better protecting the public," Neyroud said. "The NPIA looks forward to working with Cogent Systems to ensure this new technology is rolled out to all forces."