AUTOMATED FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS
The advent of computers heralded a new age for many forensic sciences and among the first to utilize the technology was the science of fingerprints. Capturing, storing, searching, and retrieving fingerprints via computer are now standard occurrences among police agencies and forensic science laboratories. Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, or AFIS (pronounced “AYE fis”), are computerized data bases of digitized fingerprints that are searchable through software—essentially, a computer and a scanner hooked to a network-type server computer. An AFIS can store millions of print images that can be searched in a matter of minutes by a single operator. The core of this electronic system is a standard format developed by the FBI and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), with the advice of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which provides for the conversion of fingerprints into electronic data and their subsequent exchange via telecommunications and computers. Although the data format was a standard, the software and computers that operate AFIS are not and several vendors offer products to law enforcement and forensic science agencies. The drawback was that these products were not compatible with each other, precluding the easy exchange of information between systems. This situation began to change in 1999 when the FBI developed and implemented a new automated fingerprint system known as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS (pronounced “EYE-aye-fis”). Although IAFIS is primarily a 10-print system for searching an individual’s fingerprints like a standard AFIS, it can also digitally capture latent print and 10-print images and then
• enhance an image to improve its quality;
• compare crime scene ingerprints against known 10-print records retrieved from the database;
• search crime scene ingerprints against known ingerprints when no suspects have been developed; and
• automatically search the prints of an arrestee against a database of unsolved cases.
Other advances are being made to solve the problem of noncompatible AFIS computers. The Universal Latent Workstation is the first in a new generation of interoperable fingerprint workstations. Several state and local agencies, the FBI, NIST, and AFIS technology manufacturers are developing standards to provide for the interoperability and sharing of fingerprint identification services. The Workstation is part of that program and it assists agencies and manufacturers understand and develop the concept of “encode once and search anywhere.” The Workstation allows agencies not only to enter data into the format of the system they purchased and use but also to share that data with other, previously incompatible systems. Agencies will eventually be able to use this type of workstation to search local, state, neighboring, and the FBI IAFIS system, all with a single entry.
