MORIS: The iPhone Attachment That Gave Police Iris-Scanning Capability
In 2011, dozens of police departments across the United States began adopting a biometric scanning device designed to attach to an iPhone. The Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System (MORIS), manufactured by BI2 Technologies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, could photograph a person’s face or scan their iris and run the captured data against a database of criminal records. Each unit cost approximately $3,000.
The technology represented a significant shift in how law enforcement could identify individuals in the field. An iris scan, which detects unique patterns in a person’s eyes, could reduce identification time from minutes to seconds and offered significantly greater accuracy than traditional fingerprinting methods. When used for facial recognition, the device could photograph a person and search for matches through BI2’s managed database.
How the Technology Worked in Practice
The MORIS system was deployed both in the field and at station houses. Police departments in locations including Arizona’s Pinal County, Hampton City in Virginia, and Calhoun County in Alabama were among the roughly 40 law enforcement agencies that adopted or planned to adopt the devices.
BI2 CEO Sean Mullin emphasized that the device required close-range, cooperative interaction to capture usable images. He maintained that covert scanning would be extremely difficult because the MORIS needed to be used at close proximity, making it obvious to the subject that biometric data was being collected.
The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department in Massachusetts was among the first to deploy MORIS, using it both for field identification and for security at its 1,650-inmate jail. The system served as a final verification step before prisoner release, comparing the outgoing individual’s iris against the facility database to prevent misidentification.
Privacy Concerns and Civil Liberties Questions
Despite manufacturer assurances about close-range requirements, privacy advocates raised concerns. The ACLU noted that the device could accurately scan an individual’s face from up to four feet away, potentially without that person’s awareness. Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the national ACLU, warned against the devices becoming “a general surveillance tool, where the police start using them routinely on the general public, collecting biometric information on innocent people.”
Constitutional rights experts argued that police should be required to have probable cause that a crime had been committed before administering an iris scan. Without such safeguards, the technology could enable a form of dragnet biometric collection that had no precedent in American law enforcement.
Earlier Applications and Broader Implications
BI2 Technologies had been developing the underlying technology since 2005, initially deploying it to help agencies identify missing children and at-risk adults such as Alzheimer’s patients. The system was also used to combat identity fraud and had potential applications in traffic stops where a driver lacked identification, as well as at border checkpoints.
However, the technology was not without flaws. Facial recognition systems of that era had documented accuracy problems, including cases where individuals had their driver’s licenses erroneously revoked because the software mistakenly flagged them as matching another person’s photo. These false-positive issues underscored the risks of relying on biometric technology for consequential law enforcement decisions without adequate verification safeguards.
