Unlike single-modality handheld facial recognition, which checks a photographed face against one watchlist, multimodal devices combine several biometric and identity checks in one unit: a face, a fingerprint, a scanned document, and sometimes a vehicle plate, checked in the same street stop against multiple databases at once.

The most fully documented example is Greece's 'Smart Policing' programme, which equipped Hellenic Police officers with 1,000 devices checking against national, EU and international databases including the Schengen Information System, the Visa Information System, EURODAC, and Interpol-linked systems. The programme was funded substantially by the European Commission and fully delivered before Greece's data protection authority ruled the entire procurement, operation and use unlawful at the end of 2025 -- a regulator finding an EU-funded, fully built system unlawful after the money had already been spent, which is a distinct outcome from a system blocked before deployment or one operating without a ruling either way.

The combination of biometric matching with an international immigration database gallery, rather than a domestic force watchlist, places this category at the intersection of ordinary street policing and border enforcement.