VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 12, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Imagis Technologies Inc. ("Imagis") (OTCBB:IMTIF) (TSX-V:WSI) (XETRA:IGYA) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with King County, Washington for a major expansion of the highly successful RAIN (Regional Automated Information Network) project for the County's law enforcement agencies. The contract is valued at approximately $1,000,000 (CAN). The King County project represents one of several regional information sharing networks that use the Imagis BIE solution. Imagis products already provide-or are in the process of delivering-the foundation for data sharing solutions in California, Texas, and North Carolina.
Initiated as a pilot project to link three agencies-the King County Sheriff's Office and the Bellevue and Tukwila municipal police departments-RAIN has proven to be a cost-effective and reliable way to increase officer safety and improve information access. The new project builds on this foundation, expanding RAIN's capabilities and benefits to over 3000 officers across 23 independent police jurisdictions responsible for protecting over 1.7 million citizens. Soon, the Seattle, Redmond and Kirkland municipal police forces-among others-will join their RAIN counterparts by enabling their officers on the street to access critical information drawn from data housed in 17 different police record management systems.
RAIN combines the company's flagship Briyante Integration Environment (BIE) with a "real time" web user interface that facilitates "federated queries" across disparate data silos. The technological approach is unique because integration is accomplished using "soft touch" (as opposed to hard-coded), standards-based interfaces that do not require any changes be made to source systems and technologies, adding new value to historical investments in existing technology.
The project scope also includes the company's facial recognition technology, which will allow officers to search distributed imagery databases using only a photograph as a query parameter.
Unlike centralized, data warehouse-oriented solutions, the Imagis approach allows incremental deployment of data sharing, overcoming traditional political barriers with a secure, distributed and democratic means of allowing individual jurisdictions to determine what data they share, and with whom they share it. The Imagis methods, technologies and solutions will allow King County to complete the operational rollout at a fraction of traditional costs, over a much shorter time frame.
"We are very proud that King County continues its leadership role for regional law enforcement data integration," said Sheriff Sue Rahr, King County Sheriff's Office. "The Imagis solution has enabled King County agencies to bridge political and technological issues by focusing on the end goal, which is to give every police officer the benefit of police knowledge across as many jurisdictions as possible. Once this next expansion phase is completed, we can even begin to look at sharing information between other agencies and neighboring counties."
Imagis President and CEO Roy Trivett added: "Our ongoing partnership with law enforcement in King County has been mutually rewarding. Imagis has learned a lot about what police officers and justice agencies really need in terms of quick access to information. The fact that the pilot project successfully provided a proof of operation and is now expanding, provides further validation that the Imagis approach is the easiest, most flexible and most secure information sharing technology available today."
About Imagis Technologies Inc.
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Imagis specializes in developing and marketing software products that enable integrated access to applications and databases. The company also develops solutions that automate law enforcement procedures and evidence handling. These solutions often incorporate Imagis' proprietary facial recognition algorithms and tools. Using industry standard "Web Services", Imagis delivers a secure and economical approach to true, real-time application interoperability. The corresponding product suite is referred to as the Briyante Integration Environment (BIE).
Numerous production deployments of BIE have demonstrated remarkable reductions in the time, complexity, and risk associated with defining, implementing, and supporting integrated access to physically and technologically disparate computers. The broad ranging applicability of BIE into a variety of areas (e.g., health care, financial services, government services, telecommunications, etc.) has been clearly demonstrated by recent, highly-successful deployments in the United States and Canada. Imagis booking and facial recognition systems are deployed in Canada, the United Kingdom, United States, Mexico and the Far East.
Imagis is a Microsoft Certified Partner.
For information about Imagis or the company's products and services, please refer to www.imagistechnologies.com.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
"Roy Trivett" President and CEO, Imagis Technologies Inc.
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Forward Looking Statements: This press release may contain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include the risks and uncertainties described in Imagis Technologies Inc.'s Form 10-KSB filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.