Page 37 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

22 AUTOMATED FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS

systems. Few government agencies have the technical staff to design, develop,
test, and continually upgrade these systems, so they rely on companies that
have proven themselves as leaders in this arena. However, government pur-
chasers and managers must know more about the system than just the infor-
mation in the sales brochure. They must be able to maintain the current systems
and plan for future changes. And in the world of AFIS, when booking officers
want to know if they are holding a wanted fugitive in their cellblock, they do
not want to hear “The system is down. We’ll get back to you on Monday
morning.”
There is a great deal of misinformation and misunderstanding about AFIS
systems. They are much better than some people believe and less interactive
than others might think. Some want everyone to be fingerprinted, while others
believe that advances in DNA identification will make fingerprint identification
unnecessary. It is possible to be fingerprinted in one state and not have the
record appear on a search from another state. It is also possible for a perpe-
trator to leave just a tiny fraction of a fingerprint image at a crime scene and
later be identified by a latent print examiner using AFIS technology.
A simple analogy is to compare AFIS databases to the information on file at
a financial institution such as a credit union or a bank. To apply for a credit
card from that institution, an individual must supply certain personal infor-
mation that must be authenticated by the financial institution by checking it
for authenticity and accuracy. Is the person who completed the application the
same person whose name appears on the application? Is there any biographi-
cal or financial information that is missing or incomplete? If the applicant
already has a credit card, there is a record on at least one database that can be
checked for a financial history. If this is the applicant’s first credit card, the
process may result in a phone call to authenticate some of the information. If
the criteria of the credit card issuer have been met, the credit card is issued.
The applicant now has a credit card, the credit union or bank has a customer,
and the credit card issuer has a file and history. Future transactions by the card
owner are recorded by the issuer, and information on timeliness of payments,
credit limit, and other financial data are collected and maintained. Bankrupt-
cies and closure of accounts are noted as well.
When a person is fingerprinted, the process is similar to the credit card appli-
cation process. Instead of a paper application, inked tenprint cards that contain
both biographical information and finger images are completed and sent to a
central database to determine if the person has ever been fingerprinted in the
past, just as the financial institution checks to see if a credit card has ever been
issued. If there is a record, the information is forwarded to the inquiring agency.
If not, a new record is created, just as a new credit card is issued. One signifi-