Cogent Systems Announces Initial $11 Million Award for National Criminal APFIS in Spain

SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. — Cogent Systems today announced an initial $11 million award from the Spanish Ministry of Interior, General Directorate of the Police and Civil Guard, for a national criminal automated fingerprint and palmprint identification system.

The new state-of-the-art system will be used by law enforcement officials for the Spanish National Police and Spanish Civil Guard and will integrate with the Ministry’s criminal history system, with other European AFIS systems via the Pruem Treaty and Interpol. Cogent Systems will serve as prime contractor on the project which can support over 500 workstations nationwide and includes Cogent’s livescan units and mobile ID units.

Spain has been a long term user of AFIS systems and has also done some pioneering work on dactyloscopy. This new system represents a significant leap forward for law enforcement in Spain and will allow for much closer integration with other important databases such as the Shengen System and Interpol. “We look forward to working with Cogent in building the most advanced system available today,” quoted a senior law enforcement official in Spain.

“After a lengthy procurement process and extensive benchmark testing, we are pleased to announce a significant win in Spain that is a testament to our technical superiority and innovative solution,” commented Ming Hsieh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogent. “Historically, Spain has been a market dominated by our competition and we believe this award can lead to further opportunities in Spain and in Europe, overall. Cogent’s superior performance was demonstrated during the benchmark on a database of over 2,000,000 tenprint records to accurately measure system accuracy and performance. Notably, this award includes our AFIS technology, livescans and Bluecheck mobile identification handheld devices, demonstrating the power of having a full line of products to sell into prospective customers.”

About Cogent Systems

Cogent is a global biometric identification solutions provider to governments, law enforcement agencies, and commercial enterprises. Cogent provides the highest quality identification systems, products and services with leading technology, accuracy and speed. Cogent’s Automated Fingerprint/Palmprint Identification Systems, or AFIS, enable customers to capture fingerprint and palm print images electronically, encode prints into searchable files, and accurately compare a set of fingerprints/palm prints to a database containing potentially millions of prints in seconds. For more information, please visit http://www.cogentsystems.com.