​To understand the design of LEA Blue… you need to understand the history of Blue Biometrics.

Blue Biometrics (Blue) was founded in Australia in September 2017, to develop world class contactless biometric technology, for dual use national security and commercial applications. Blue now also operates companies in the UK and the USA. Prior to founding Blue, the co-founders were involved in pioneering contactless technology.

But the real story of Blue starts in 1996, in one of the most challenging policing divisions in Melbourne, Australia, at the grossly understaffed Sunshine Police Station. Our CEO Kenneth King was then a Constable of the Victoria Police, who volunteered to transfer into the crime ridden area. As police all around the world know, identity is the first point of proof for every offence. When an arrest was made, identity was firmly established by; fingerprints inked on paper, a photograph of their face, descriptions of scars marks and tattoos, identity documents and array of enquiries, including sometimes visiting the offender’s home. But that wasn’t where the problem lay, except Ken was always worried that his uncle, fingerprint expert in Queensland Police Service would one day be embarrassed by the quality of a set of prints Ken was able to take using ink. Fortunately that awkward call never came, even once Ken joined the Queensland Police Service. Probably because by that time Ken was arresting criminals whilst working at State Crime Operations Command, he discovered the ease of a uniformed officer operating a livescan at the Watchhouse to help process offenders. He wished that in the past he could have taken such good quality prints that easily. He contemplated how useful a mobile fingerprint scanner would have been on raids whilst working in remote Queensland towns as a member of the State Drug Investigation Unit. That was where the real identity problem lay, just has it had in Sunshine.… effective, efficient field identity.

Field contacts, carding, activity reporting, whatever the term you give it, talking to people whilst you patrol is a staple of effective policing. Ken found that too often you didn’t really know if the driver’s licence you were looking at really belonged to the suspicious person pulled over or his brother. How often was a wanted offender missed because of having to race off to a stabbing or a hot burg? Other times people had to be taken into custody, arrested because it was necessary for identity, but a mobile fingerprint scanner and a summons would have been better for them and more efficient use of police resources.

Other times low quality fingerprints are the problem. Blue is aware of a case that almost allowed the escape of a homicide offender because he had poor quality elimination prints taken as a witness. In fact, one of his prints was in the victim's blood. The poor-quality elimination prints connected the offender only with prints that he could have left as an innocent visitor to the house. However, when a quality set of prints was taken, he was identified as the offender from the print in the blood. A mobile fingerprint scanning capability could have identified him as a suspect earlier and more reliably. 

There are many more chapters in the Blue story, but this understanding is fundamental to how Blue will continue to iterate LEA Blue to be the world's best contactless fingerprint tech for operational police - to make the streets safer.

Blue is committed to operational effectiveness, efficiency and safety. We listen to officers and actively engage with stakeholders to continue to learn. We seek out activities that provide meaningful feedback to iterate our design through feedback from users, agencies and our own direct observations. Internally, our small highly talented team utilise agile software development methods and AI to be one of the global leaders in contactless fingerprint capture by smartphone cameras.