NBI to set up voice register of criminal suspects

Police have hundreds of voice samples of hard-core criminals

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Police in Finland plan to set up a new register of voice samples of suspected criminals, to complement the existing fingerprint, DNA, and shoe print registers. The voice register is to be taken into use at the end of 2010 if the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is given the financing that it has requested from the Ministry of the Interior.
     The new register could be used by the police units of the whole country, in the same way that fingerprints and DNA information currently on file are used for identifying criminals.
     
The NBI believes that the new register will make the investigation of crimes easier especially when police listen in on the telephone calls of suspected criminals, or during surveillance of specific locations, such as motorcycle gang clubhouses.
     The electronic voice registry could help police identify voices that are heard in different situations.
     The register is to include voice recognition software, which automatically seeks to match an unidentified voice with one on file.
     However, voice identification is not 100 per cent accurate.
     “The main benefit from this will come from helping police get on the track of the right people”, says Tapani Reinikainen, of the NBI’s Crime Laboratory.
     
Voice identification is not new in Finland.
     The NBI Crime Laboratory has analysed voice samples for about ten years to determine the likelihood that the voice heard in a recording is that of a specific person.
     To this end, the police have a few hundred voice samples which will form the foundation of a new register. Most of these samples were taken from hard-core criminals.
     Reinikainen does not yet know what kind of people will have their voices recorded for the new register.
     “It might initially be limited to those suspected of serious crimes. Voice samples will probably not be taken of those suspected of the least severe crimes”, he ponders.
     
Veteran criminal investigator, Juha Rautaheimo of the Helsinki Criminal Police, believes that the register would be useful for the investigation of serious crimes.
     “Professionals on the other side change devices and prepaid telephone subscriptions all the time. It is difficult to ascertain who is behind a particular telephone subscription. The voice register could help, as the same guys are often behind different cases”, he says.


Links:
  Police to set up national shoe print register (27.5.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat