Just as a fingerprint or DNA can help police determine people linked to a crime, tattoos now will serve as an identifier thanks to research done by an MSU professor.
Anil Jain, a university distinguished professor in the departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, developed a technology allowing police to identify criminals and victims based on their tattoos. The technology has been licensed to MorphoTrak, a biometric and identity management solutions company, to help law enforcement agencies for suspect and victim identification.
“We are uniquely positioned in the industry to bring this technology to market to assist law enforcement and corrections agencies in making our streets safer,” MorphoTrak CEO Daniel Vassy said in a statement.
Similar programs use keywords to describe tattoos for law enforcement purposes, Jain said. However, his new technology allows for image matching. Based on a tattoo’s color, shape and texture, an image can be compared to similar images.
“The problem with that keyword search, the same image could be assigned multiple keywords based on whoever is identifying the tattoo,” Jain said. “Our technology is based on image matching. It takes away the subjective nature of the previous method.”
Michigan State Police Inspector Greg Michaud and the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division worked with Jain and his associates to provide information for the database. Michaud said the technology is invaluable because it allows police other ways to gather information about identity.
“If there are other routes we can travel to find out who someone is, the greater chance we can catch them,” he said.
The Michigan State Police provided Jain with more than 17,000 images to start his database, Jain said.
Conventional forms of identification, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, aren’t as reliable in situations where victims’ bodies have begun to decompose, Jain said.
“While tattoos are not unique to identifying a person, oftentimes they are something we look to when other means of identification fail,” he said.
Other benefits of tattoo matching include identifying members of gangs, who often have similar tattoos associated with the gang, Jain said.
The Michigan State Police have more than 100,000 images of tattoos from individuals placed into the Department of Corrections. Many of the images have gang affiliation.
Jain said although tattoo matching is not foolproof, the technology is a part of research for more efficient types of matching strategies.
“Image matching is both academically challenging and it is of great societal and commercial value,” Jain said.
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