TACOMA, Wash. - Sagem Morpho, a leading developer of biometric solutions, today announced that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is the first public safety organization in the United States to deploy a statewide fingerprintentification system dedicated to remote rapidentification. The Sagem Morpho Rapid system enables Florida public safety officers in the field or other remote locations to positivelyentify sex offenders, probationers, and individuals with Florida criminal records in less than 15 seconds. Sagem Morpho, which develops highly accurate Automated Fingerprintentification Systems (AFIS) for public safety agencies worldwide, leveraged its high-speed biometric coding and matching technology, commercial off-the-shelf servers and non-proprietary, standards-based software to create the stand-alone Rapid system for FDLE. Originally mandated by Florida’s Jessica Lunsford Act, the FDLE Rapid was launched in October 2006 and is part of Florida’s Integrated Criminal History System, also know as FALCON. FALCON involves the integration and enhancement of Florida’s Computerized Criminal History and Automated Fingerprintentification Systems.   “The Rapid system has already proven to be of significant value to our partner criminal justice agencies,” said Penny Kincannon, FDLE CIO.  “We plan to expand this technology statewide to other venues such as patrol vehicles for roadside stops, jails for inmate entry and release, and courtrooms to confirm if DNA already exists on file for a convicted felon.”   FDLE believes the system could be called upon to support queries from as many as 15,000 edge devices statewide by late 2008.  Rapid is in place in all of the state’s sheriffs’ offices and probation offices and is currently being piloted by the Florida Highway Patrol and the Pinellas County Jail. “Rapid is ground-breaking biometric technology,” said Bernard Gautier, Sagem Morpho President and CEO. “Rapid differs from AFIS because Rapid requires no manual interaction during the fingerprint matching process.” In a typical Rapid application, a police officer on the street or a parole officer in a field office uses a small portable device called an edge biometric scanner to obtain digital fingerprint images from an individual. The edge unit transmits the digital print images either wirelessly or via a closed network to the Rapid system in Tallahassee for matching against the approximately 4-million-record FDLE fingerprint database. If a database match is made with the individual’s prints, Rapid uses anentification number to extract that person’s criminal records from the Florida Criminal Information Center. This “rap sheet” information is packaged into an abbreviated format and returned to a screen on the edge device where it can be viewed and read by the public safety official. The on-screen information provided to public safety officers allows them to instantlyentify the offender in question, and ascertain whether that person is a sex offender or if there is an outstanding arrest warrant, so the officer can take appropriate action. If no match is made, the Rapid system purges the prints, and they are not retained in a database. About Sagem Morpho, Inc. (www.morpho.com) Applying experience in biometricentification solutions used in 60 countries worldwide, Sagem Morpho delivers these solutions to North American markets, including the U.S. federal government, homeland security, and law enforcement agencies, as well as to consumer and commercial sectors. A trailblazer in the design and development of large fingerprintentification systems, Sagem Morpho offers multi-biometric platforms consisting of fingerprint, palmprint, and facial and iris recognition products and services. As a subsidiary of Sagem Sécurité of the SAFRAN Group, Sagem Morpho based in Tacoma, Washington, is part of a global organization with 60,000 employees, including 7,000 in North America. About the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (www.fdle.state.fl.us) Headquartered in Tallahassee, the FDLE promotes public safety and strengthens domestic security by providing services in partnership with local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies to prevent, investigate and solve crimes while protecting Florida’s citizens and visitors. FDLE employs 2000 people at their headquarters, seven regional operations centers, 15 field offices and seven crime laboratories. Press contact: Sagem Morpho, Inc. Eve Fillon Tel. 703.797.2666 eve.fillon@morpho.com