Child Safety Organizations Turn to Cross Match Live Scan Digital Technology for Fingerprinting.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2003

Advent of New, Affordable "Live Scan" Digital Technology

More Efficient for Maintaining Child Identification Records

Digital technology is changing the way child safety organizations and law enforcement agencies obtain and maintain a complete digital identification of children. New live scan technology replaces traditional ink-on-paper fingerprints, providing a more streamlined fingerprinting process by capturing prints three times faster than the traditional method.

As many child safety organizations work to increase their public presence in their respective communities with messages of what parents can do to protect their children, fingerprinting children to provide a record has become commonplace and digital technology makes this process more efficient.

The Amber Center is one of several organizations reaching out in this manner. The Amber Center began as a grassroots volunteer effort in Contra Costa County, California and has grown into a nationwide service for missing children and their families across America and is the oldest all-volunteer 501C3 non-profit corporation of its kind in the United States.

"To have this vital information readily available allows law enforcement agencies to rapidly transmit a child's information to other authorities, saving critical time," said Kim Swartz, founder of the California-based Amber Center for Missing and Exploited Children and mother of missing child, Amber Jean Swartz. "The first hours in a search are the most critical, and by having this information readily available, it allows law enforcement agencies to concentrate their efforts on the recovery of the missing child."

Swartz is using a Live Scan fingerprinting system from Cross Match Technologies that enables parents to maintain a complete digital identification of their children.

Cross Match's system works by electronically scanning the prints of a person's ten fingers. The prints are then used as part of a complete child ID card that includes a color photograph, vital demographic information and medical information. These same live scan fingerprint systems can also be used to conduct FBI background checks on employees and volunteers who work with children, such as in the case of the State of Florida's Department of Children & Families (DCF). This state child welfare agency is using Cross Match live scan technology to identify the 45,000 kids under DCF protective services, as well as conducting background checks on employees and caregivers.

"We have always encouraged parents to get a complete set of identifying records for their children," said California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose state is a pioneer in the widespread use of digital fingerprinting. "With the availability and use of live scan technology, it is easier than ever to quickly get a top-quality permanent record of a parent's most precious asset."

According to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, 80 percent of the approximate 822,000 people reported missing to U.S. law enforcement agencies in 2002 were juveniles. This equates to more than 1,800 children each day, or approximately 75 children per hour.

"The use of live scan technology throughout society is growing at a fast pace as the digital technology replaces the old, more cumbersome way of obtaining and using prints," said Theodore "Ted" Johnson, Cross Match Chairman and CEO. "In this very important area of child security, we are working with a variety of agencies and organizations to make live scan available as a community resource so that parents can have a permanent record of their children's identification."

About Cross Match Technologies' Child Identification Solution

Cross Match Technologies, a leading global provider of forensic-quality fingerprint and palm print identification solutions, created a child identification kit that enables users to create a digital identification card or record on CD ROM, complete with color photo, vital demographic and medical information, plus ten digitized fingerprints. The deluxe child ID kit contains a number of items and accessories, including: a light-weight, durable high-speed fingerprint scanner; laptop computer; digital USB camera with tripod; USB flexible fan; 100 custom-labeled blank CDs and fingerprint cards, and a rugged, highly mobile carrying case. Cross Match Technologies' live scan equipment is also widely used across the nation by a variety of federal and state homeland security, law enforcement, education and social services agencies.

About Cross Match Technologies

Since its founding in 1996, Cross Match Technologies, Inc. has been at the forefront of applying forensic quality fingerprint imaging technology towards the development of cost-effective biometric security solutions for law enforcement, federal, aviation, commercial and international organizations. Headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and offering the broadest product lines in the industry, Cross Match is recognized for setting new standards in fingerprint imaging components through its more than 70 existing or pending patents and related intellectual properties. Additional information on Cross Match is available at http://www.crossmatch.com.