The WINPHO Capture Application

The WINPHO application does four things:

1. It allows a user with the appropriate equipment to capture mugshots or other images;
2. It allows the user to insert the captured image into a variety of utilities, from missing persons posters to mugshot databases to stolen property databases;
3. It allows all users to search and retrieve mugshots from all participants;
4. It provides an interface between dissimilar systems.

Currently, the WINPHO application is installed locally upon a user’s capture station. However, the software is being migrated to a web-based application and will therefore be available to a much larger user base. The application software was procured with a perpetual license for use in all WIN member jurisdictions, whether state or federal. Migration to the web application will also see migration from Windows NT to Windows 2000 on capture stations. Whereas the original implementation of WINPHO capture used an expensive video camera with an S-Video connection to a specialized capture card, WINPHO’s post-migration application will use a very affordable Olympus digital camera and USB connection to the computer. Use of a USB connection was not possible under Windows NT. Currently, WINPHO servers operate in an NT environment as well. Conversion to Windows 2000 Server is expected to take place during this calendar year.

How it Works

Figure 1: WINPHO mugshot capture and data entry screen

Capture
To capture a mugshot, a user opens the WINPHO application on the computer desktop, enters appropriate textual information into the displayed fields, clicks twice to capture an image, and saves the file. The captured image and the associated text are automatically placed into a queue to await upload to the WINPHO server. On a regular schedule—more often for busy locations, but at least once per day—the WINPHO server initiates an FTP session with the remote WINPHO capture station and retrieves the queued records. From the retrieved records the WINPHO server creates an index entry and a thumbnail image and posts everything to the database. The record is now available to all WINPHO participants.

While the capture of mugshots using a camera and the WINPHO application is an obvious function, there are other ways to get images into the database. Specifically, photographs may be scanned and the resulting image imported into a record, or an image which already exists in digital form may be imported. In either case, the result is a record indistinguishable from a WINPHO camera capture.

Click here to see the WINPHO Site Preparation Guide. It will help you understand the physical environment of the capture station.

Retrieval
As noted earlier, users have the option of participating in WINPHO as a contributor or simply as a receiver. While those users participating only as a receiver can (as you might guess) only receive, a fundamental feature of the WINPHO capture workstation is the ability to receive as well as capture. Again:

• A WINPHO Receive Station can only receive data
• A WINPHO Capture Station can capture/transmit and receive

Retrieval from WINPHO uses Internet Explorer. To retrieve a record, the user first logs on to the WINPHO server. Based upon the user’s identification, IP, and, in some cases, MAC address, the WINPHO server presents the user with links to all parts of the system to which that user is authorized access. The user selects the portion or portions of the database he or she wants to use based upon the kind of information he or she wants to see. For instance, if the user wants to acquire an Oregon driver license record, he or she selects the Oregon DMV database. Having gained access to that database, the user is required to provide a specific operator license number (OLN), and only the record associated with that OLN will be returned.

Other parts of the WINPHO database allow a broader approach. For example, having located the desired mugshot in a specific part of the database, the descriptive data of that subject may be used in a search against all mugshots, resulting in WINPHO’s presentation of all records meeting those descriptive criteria. The resulting photographs may be used in a photo lineup, or for another purpose.

For instance, with the image of his male, five foot three inch, gray haired, bearded 45 year old suspect on-screen, a detective can bring up photographs of all other men in the database that meet this description. In the WINPHO "six-pack" lineup screen, the suspect is randomly placed into one of six locations in the lineup. The user may, if desired, move the suspect image (or, for that matter, any image) to any of the six positions in the presentation at any time. All subjects meeting the descriptive search data are presented on the left side of the user’s screen. The user simply clicks on any picture in the list and then clicks on any position in the lineup. The selected image is placed in the position clicked by the user. The user continues this process until he or she is satisfied that the lineup is appropriate. At this point the lineup may be printed or displayed on screen to a witness. All identifying information is removed from the display when the print is generated, but is provided on an accompanying sheet for other uses.

Name-search capability is included as a feature of WINPHO retrieval. However, this "brute force" approach is discouraged (and will soon be discontinued). As mentioned above, this tool is designed to be powered by the information gleaned through traditional criminal justice sources, like criminal history records. Those traditional sources of information support detailed searches and are highly refined. In contrast, a name search of WINPHO has a disproportionate impact on the server and, because it is a broad, basic, Soundex search, returns a huge number of remotely-related subjects. WINPHO search should be considered a last-ditch effort. However, this need not be the case indefinitely; should the need arise, a small, search server, dedicated to this function, could be installed. This would allow high quality searches to be conducted against a large portion of the WINPHO database.

Retrieval is not limited to production of six-packs. As noted above, WINPHO can be interfaced to other applications, such as jail management systems or MDTs. What’s more, a basic, built-in function of WINPHO retrieval is generation of a print which includes the photograph and all available data on a particular subject. Further, any image may be imported into a missing persons or "wanted" poster—another basic function included in the WINPHO application.

Update! A trend toward requiring sequential (in place of simultaneous) lineups seems to be appearing in non-WIN jurisdictions. Should sequential lineups become required in WIN states or by the Federal Rules of Evidence, WINPHO will accomodate this requirement with an option to view or print images in a manner that conforms with the rule.

Interface
Participants operating commercial systems connected to WINPHO through an interface differ from WINPHO-native users only in that they reach the data through their commercial system. If the interface will not support WINPHO retrieval, the interfaced user may search and retrieve against WINPHO using Internet Explorer running on any connected computer. See the Interface section of this site for more information.

Legal and Political Implementation Issues
Because WIN is a cooperative made up of federal, state, and local members, design and operation of a single system while respecting sovereignty and local rule is a complex issue. There is no shortcut, no unified approach that will satisfy all participating governments. In building this system an ability to appreciate how different governments view privacy and open records, grasp the rationale at work beneath an Attorney General’s opinion or administrative rule, and understand law and the legal process in general, was tremendously useful. All contacts at all levels of government consistently demonstrated the highest level of cooperation. However, this fact did not diminish the need for careful coordination of regulations governing individual jurisdictions. The nature of this coordination is such that it must be accomplished from the outside; an Attorney General in Oregon cannot be expected, for instance, to help coordinate the transfer of records between a state server in Idaho and a local department in Wyoming.

NOTE: the images used for illustration on this site are obviously not NIST-compliant. Rest assured that the "live" images in WINPHO are NIST-compliant.