Since 2018, the Federal Police were successfully using apps to check documents and identities when checking people during mobile deployments. The "BPOL Dokumentenprüfung" ("BPOL Document Check") app gives federal police officers a flexible and secure way to scan and check electronic identity documents (eIDs) using a smartphone when they are out and about. What's more, it enables verification of biometric data such as comparing the facial image stored in the chip against the person you are looking at. The app also offers the ability to use a smartphone for important aspects of stationary passport and identity card checks. secunet developed the app for the German Federal Police on the basis of the secunet biomiddle platform and tailored it to suit the force's day-to-day requirements. For example, checks can also be conducted in offline mode. The app improves the overall availability of police information and thus plays a significant role in maintaining domestic security.
With the NFC interface in iOS13 which was recently opened up to third party providers, the app is now available on all major mobile platforms and can scan eIDs without the need for any additional hardware. This will benefit police forces which use both Android and iOS devices and are using, or planning to use, the "BPOL Document Check" app.
The German Federal Police and secunet are also offering regional police forces the fruits of their successful partnership at federal level to develop apps for mobile document checking and biometric identity verification. In addition to the "BPOL Document Check" app, several regional forces are already successfully using other apps developed with secunet in their everyday business.
All of secunet's smart police apps are based on the secunet biomiddle software platform, which was developed together with the German Federal Office for Information Security. It offers a wide range of functionality in the fields of document verification, biometrics and OCR. It sits at the heart of multi-faceted document check and identity check applications used by law enforcement. Through service-oriented interfaces, secunet biomiddle implements the process logic on an app-specific basis and manages the components and the communication with background systems required for the relevant law enforcement procedure (e.g. Fast-ID).
The mobile version of the secunet biomiddle platform can be incorporated into existing apps of police forces or other providers as a Software Development Kit (SDK), e.g. for process handling. With versatile platform support and SDK availability, the German Federal Police and secunet have taken an important step towards providing unified mobile IT across police forces.
