Terrorism fears drive biometrics in law enforcement

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Enforcing the Law Using Biometrics, finds that the market earned revenues of $838m in 2014 and estimates this to reach $1,129m in 2021. The study covers LiveScan, Mobile ID and AFIS.

The ever-increasing concern over domestic terrorism is one of the major drivers for biometrics in law enforcement. With biometrics, law enforcement agencies can deny anonymity to fraudsters, terrorists and criminals using the latest technology to calibrate attacks. Agencies can get information and intelligence to identify the criminal with precision and speed.

Ram Ravi, Industry Analyst, Manufacturing 4.0, Frost & Sullivan, commented: “While the need for system maintenance will strengthen the biometrics market across mature economies, new product adoption will be the key factor fuelling growth in less mature geographies. Biometrics vendors will have to demonstrate their capabilities and establish a strong brand reputation to win tenders in these markets.”

A key concern for vendors, however, is the limited budget allotted for new biometric technologies so that larger funds can be made available for projects of greater significance to countries’ growth and security. The unfavourable global economic conditions will further cause governments to defer expenditure on new biometric technologies and reforms.

“One way to counter tight defence budgets is to slash the prices of biometric systems. This, in turn, will heighten the importance of middleware/services over hardware,” added Ravi.

Impending opportunities for middleware and software vendors are driving efforts to improve biometric algorithms for higher accuracy in the law enforcement process. Vendors that can successfully achieve this will have brighter prospects in the law enforcement space.