Page 26 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

INTRODUCTION 11

With current AFIS technology, not only can the resident database be
searched for a latent print match, but so can the federal database. There are
multiple search options for these latent prints that did not exist 20 years ago,
and using AFIS, a determined latent print examiner can search a latent print
against millions of records in a few minutes.
Today, detectives use computers to view a subject’s criminal record, or the
rap sheet, which comes from the new “R and I,” AFIS. The rap sheet may also
contain a mug shot, information on scars, marks, tattoos, and prints of the palm
areas of each hand.
AFIS today is not just used in criminal applications. In addition to searches
as part of a criminal background investigation, state identification bureaus use
their databases for comparing fingerprint images for job applicants and licens-
ing. Based on statutes and following the requirements of a use and dissemina-
tion agreement, government agencies and private corporations can request
a fingerprint-based background check for job applicants. Many states have
created an AFIS for exclusively non-criminal, i.e., civil, applications, such as
social services programs in which enrollment of a subject’s single index finger
or both index fingers into an AFIS database is a requirement for receiving ben-
efits. AFIS not only provides access to funding, but also reduces the opportu-
nities for fraud. With a statewide AFIS system, it is becoming increasingly
challenging to illegally collect benefits from several jurisdictions using the same
or even different names.
The equipment and software currently used in AFIS systems have also
migrated into other identification areas. For example, single print readers allow
access to restricted areas. These devices record the finger images of an autho-
rized person through an enrollment process. Together with a personal identi-
fication number (PIN), the devices retain a computerized record of the finger
image. To gain access, the finger is inserted into the reader and the PIN is
entered. The information is compared with the stored data; if there is a
match, access is granted. These readers have a variety of applications. School
districts, for example, use single print readers to authenticate enrollment in
subsided school lunch programs, and homeless shelters use portable singer
print readers to authenticate the identity of a person entitled to spend the night
at the shelter.
Single print readers are an example of a one-to-one (1:1) search. The subject
is enrolled into a system by capturing a finger image using an image reader.
Biographical information and access rights to functions such as entrance to
secure rooms are provided by a system administrator. When the subject places
a finger or thumb into the reader and enters a PIN, the image is again cap-
tured and compared with the record on file for that subject; the correct PIN
and image will allow access. The system can only match a known image with a