Page 101 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

86 AUTOMATED FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS

booking process is completed by non-sworn personnel. If sworn personnel are
used, supervisors can reduce the amount of overtime required by assigning pris-
oner booking to the next available officer instead of holding a sworn officer
past the end of shift. The arresting officer’s responsibility ends at the booking
station, allowing this highly skilled officer to return to the street.
This move to automation, however, is not without its critics. Mixing civilian
staff with sworn staff to perform nearly identical functions can create uneasi-
ness. The sworn personnel may worry about their future, and the civilians may
ask why their salary and benefits are so much lower than the sworn person right
next to them doing the same job.
The move from paper to computers also requires a different skill set. Pass-
words, user codes, keyboards, and directories have replaced keys, pencils, and
reticles. Achy muscles from standing too long at the file cabinets have been
replaced by carpel tunnel syndrome from too much typing on a keyboard.
The key to the success of the AFIS system is the initial impression. A good
nail-to-nail roll as seen in Figure 4.7 can contain over 100 minutiae points.
These are the minutiae that are used in tenprint searches. These are also the
minutiae that will be matched in a latent print search. Without the capture of
as many minutiae as possible, AFIS cannot reach its potential.

4.4 WHY ARE SOME IDENTIFICATIONS MISSED?

A question that is occasionally (and now rarely) asked by administrators is why
did their AFIS miss an identification that was made on another AFIS, possibly
IAFIS? There are several possible explanations, most of which are the result of
human error. The most common reason for a missed identification is that the
image and minutiae on the local AFIS were of poor quality. This poor quality

Figure 4.7
Nail-to-Nail Roll and
Plain Impression