Page 42 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

INTRODUCTION 27

1.12.9 CHAPTER 10 CASE STUDY—DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH:
INCREASING THE NUMBER OF LATENT PRINT IDENTIFICATIONS

Chapter 10 summarizes remarks presented by the author at the 2002 Educa-
tional Conference at the International Association for Identification. Managers
are constantly striving to find techniques that will provide more and better
results with a minimum amount of additional personnel commitment. This
chapter describes how the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services
upgraded the existing AFIS system, resulting in the number of latent print iden-
tifications doubling over a two-year period. This increase in latent print iden-
tifications was not just due to the improvements to the system, but also to the
methods that examiners used to re-search existing cases.

1.12.10 APPENDICES

Appendix A is a glossary of definitions and terms used in the field of identifi-
cation and AFIS. As with any discipline, there are terms and acronyms that are
either unique to the discipline or that may have a meaning different from the
generally understood definition. At times, these definitions make no sense to
the novice, but long-standing traditions keep them alive. For example, the ten-
print file contains the images of only two fingers. The latent cognizant, or crim-
inal, file does contain all ten images, but it may contain more than just criminal
records. The tenprint technicians and latent print examiners may perform
many of the same tasks. This appendix will help reduce confusion arising from
these terms.
Appendix B contains the 1998 IAI AFIS Committee Report on Cross-
Jurisdictional Use of AFIS Systems, which was one of the seminal documents
exploring the feasibility of searching latent prints from one vendor on an AFIS
developed by another vendor. While the interoperability of tenprint searches
has continued to grow, the ability to search latent prints on multiple databases
continues to lag far behind.
Funding through the National Criminal History Improvement Project
(NCHIP) has provided the basis for many AFIS systems. Appendix C shows the
NCHIP funding distribution from 1995 through 2003.
Identification systems will continue to grow and improve. It is the intent of
the author and contributors that readers of this book will be in a better posi-
tion to effect those changes.