Northern Territory Police last week received two awards at the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) iAwards regional finals in the categories of Infrastructure & Platforms Innovation of the Year and Public Sector & Government.

The iAwards are a leading Australian awards program for innovation in the digital economy.

Sergeant Chris Brand said Northern Territory Police were nominated for the iAwards combined South Australia and Northern Territory regional finals following the development and use of a Facial Recognition Custody Identification Application, developed in association with NEC Australia.

“The facial recognition technology is the product of a close collaboration between NT Police and an NEC Melbourne-based research and development team,” he said.

“Currently in operation in both the Darwin and Alice Springs NT Police Watch Houses, the project involved extensive experimentation to ensure the system delivered extremely high accuracy rates and was optimised to capture images in a wide range of conditions.”

Northern Territory Police began trialling the state of the art technology - which allows the rapid identification of people coming into custody - in September 2015.

The technology assists in the identification of individuals who present at a Watch House who may have existing medical issues or who might pose a risk of harm to themselves, other members of the public or police members.

“As a result of the win in Adelaide, Northern Territory Police and NEC will now go on to compete at the national iAward final being held in Melbourne in late August 2016,” Sergeant Brand said.