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the examiners and investigators can determine if they have found a serial
offender who has left latent prints at multiple crime scenes in either the same
jurisdiction or multiple jurisdictions.

5.5 AFIS REPORTS

Every vendor can deliver a series of reports on various functions of the AFIS
system. The topics of these reports range from the overall operation of the
system, such as the amount of up-time, to very specific items, such as the amount
of time an operator is logged onto the system. The reports may indicate the
condition of the AFIS, with descriptions such as the average number of trans-
actions in the system at any given time. The transactions covered could include
the transactions received from remote livescan stations, those awaiting coding
as searches, those in the matchers, and those awaiting images, verification, and
validation. At the operator level, possible reports include the number of trans-
actions by a specific operator, by a group of operators, by shift, or by trans-
action type (e.g., input verification, validation, etc.). There are a variety of
methods to “data mine” a system that contains a complete, accurate, and reli-
able database.
It is the responsibility of the AFIS managers to learn the report capabilities
of their AFIS system. It is also their responsibility to be certain that the infor-
mation presented accurately represents the condition described. It is the
responsibility of the vendor to train AFIS managers on the system’s report capa-
bilities and ensure that the reports are complete, accurate, and reliable. To be
certain of this, a series of procedures that test the system must be initiated, such
as monitoring a known series of transactions through the system and measur-
ing the resulting reports. Are the numbers accurate? Was a transaction reported
properly? Did it really take the processing time that the report states? For
example, if a report is generated about the number of transactions in the antic-
ipation queue, but it actually provides the number of images in the imaging
queue, the report is wrong. Regardless of how impressive it might appear, the
data must be verified during testing to assure both the reliability and accuracy
of the information.
Along with each report, a data dictionary that not only explains the overall
components and functions of the system but also provides a standard termi-
nology must be provided. The data dictionary will help users understand the
commonly used terminology and will reduce misunderstandings.
Reports are prepared for different employees for different purposes. First
line supervisors may be concerned with the productivity of their staff in rela-
tion to the amount of time it takes them to perform their tasks. Managers may
look for similar information about the productivity of teams or shifts rather