San Diego County teams with Unisys to fight welfare fraud using automated fingerprint identification

Business Wire, April 5, 1995

BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 1995--The county of San Diego Department of Social Services announced a pilot project with Unisys Corp. to implement a fingerprint identification solution that will ensure public funds are efficiently and correctly distributed to welfare recipients.

The project will help the department reduce fraud by matching the fingerprints of applicants against a database of the county's nearly 5,000 current recipients of general relief.

The Unisys Fingerimaging Solution is based on Unisys UNIX servers and high-performance workstations running in a Windows environment. Under the pilot program, Unisys is also providing installation and maintenance services.

The Fingerimaging pilot project was announced at a press conference held yesterday at the El Cajon welfare office. According to County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, "Traditional means of identification such as photos, signatures or social security numbers can be falsified, opening the door for applicants to sign up for benefits under multiple identities.

"Each person's fingerprints, however, are unique. By using the Fingerimaging system to scan and store the fingerprints of all people applying for welfare in our five district offices, we can check for duplications in a matter of minutes. As a result, many fraudulent practices, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars per year, will be discovered or deterred."

The Unisys client/server Fingerimaging Solution includes a workstation, video camera, scanner and printer all networked to a Unisys central server. After scanning an applicant's fingerprints, eligibility workers can search the central database for a match.

In addition to fingerprints, the system can capture digitized photographs and signatures as well as demographic data in an applicant's file. The photos and other data -- which are presented via an easy-to-operate Windows interface -- are important in cases that require further investigation of possible fraud. -0- Unisys is a registered trademark of Unisys Corp. -0- All other brands and products referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Unisys Corp., Blue Bell

Susan Beck, 215/986-6036

Internet No.: becks at po6.bb.unisys.com