Page 23 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

8 AUTOMATED FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS

a terrorist. With an AFIS system, latent prints found at bombings or other
enemy actions can be compared against a database of known individuals. If
there is no match, these same latent prints can be retained in the AFIS in antic-
ipation of a match in the future.
Fingerprints have no names, no sex, and no nationality. Fingerprints do not
lie about their past, or appreciably change over time. Fingerprints are relatively
easy and inexpensive to capture either with ink and paper or electronically.
Combined with sophisticated technology and a skilled staff, AFIS emerges as a
practical identification process.
Examples given in the following chapters are considered to be representa-
tive of AFIS systems. As with automobiles, there are differences between AFIS
systems. Some are small compacts, serving only a single community. Some are
large trucks that contain all the fingerprint cards in the state. Some are older,
less robust systems; others are state of the art. Just as not everyone drives the
newest model of automobile, not every ID bureau has the latest and greatest
AFIS system.
The pre-AFIS systems worked because of the dedication of the staff and the
commitment of government to provide criminal history information as quickly
and as accurately as possible. In an age before computers, however, the process
was very compartmentalized and somewhat tedious. The advances in AFIS tech-
nology cannot be fully recognized without some understanding of the tasks that
it replaced and why fingerprints are so important for identification purposes.

1.4 IDENTIFICATION PRACTICES PRIOR TO
AFIS SYSTEMS
Identification systems did not originate with AFIS systems; rather, AFIS systems
have automated an already existing process for identifying individuals. Many
states and the federal government had an identification system in operation
years before the introduction of AFIS. Fingerprint images, the essential element
of this identification system, have been collected for over 100 years.
In movies from the 1930s and 1940s, detectives would “check with R and I”
(records and identification), a request based on a name or fingerprint card, to
see if a suspect had a criminal record. Files would be pulled, records removed,
and names and fingerprints compared. Perhaps a criminal record with the same
name as the suspect was found, but the fingerprints did not match, or perhaps
a record with matching fingerprints was found, but not with the suspect’s name.
It would take hours or perhaps days for the detective to receive the response,
a typed report.
These pre-AFIS identification bureaus employed hundreds or even thou-
sands of staff, who were entrusted with the responsibility of confirming, based