Jain, Kai and Arorai receive Civilian Citation from the Lansing Police Department

On May 10, 2017 at the Lansing Police Department Awards and Recognition Program at the Lansing Center, University Distinguished Professor Anil Jain and Dr. Kai Cao of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University, and Dr. Sunpreet-Singh Arora (formally of MSU, now at Visa) received the Civilian Citation:

"For meritorious actions which significantly aided in the protection of a life without regard for your personal safety".


The Civilian Citation states:

In May of 2016, the Lansing Police Special Operations Sections began an investigation into a large scale narcotic trafficking organization.

Within the first two weeks of the case, one of the main targets of the case was shot and killed. Officer Robert McBride assisted in the homicide investigation by writing a search warrant for the contents of the deceased cell phone. With the warrant and cell phone in hand, Officer McBride went to Detective Andrew Rathbun for the analysis. After multiple attempts and different methods, Detective Rathbun was unable to defeat the password protection on the phone. He began to research new methods and discovered there was a team at Michigan State University who was researching fingerprint technology and perfecting this very topic. He and Officer McBride took the cell phone to Michigan State University Distinguished Professor Anil Kumar Jain, Sunpreet-Singh Arora, Ph.D., and Dr. Kai Cao. The group began by collecting a previously recorded set of fingerprints for the victim. A new computer program was developed by the Michigan State University team to enhance those fingerprints. Using the enhanced fingerprints, the team was able to use an engineered version that mimicked a live human being. The new prints successfully unlocked the cell phone. At the time of the event, it was the first ever use of a replicated fingerprint to successfully unlock a cell phone.


Annotations for the photo (L to R)

Dr Sunpreet Arora (MSU, now at Visa), Dr Cao Kai (MSU), Detective Andrew Rathbun (MSU Police), Chief Mike Yankiwski (LPD), Anil Jain (MSU), Officer Robert McBride (LPD)

(Date Posted: 2017-05-15)