Page 53 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

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database to determine if the individual is on file. If so, the records are retrieved
through means not associated with the AFIS process. While not used by large
identification bureaus, this has some appeal for small agencies where the crim-
inal history records can be retrieved relatively quickly and for those users who
want a database limited to specific purposes, e.g., a wanted file. Whatever cri-
teria are selected, there is an agency and a vendor that will claim to have been
the first to offer this type of AFIS system.
The size of the agency that bought the AFIS system can also be considered.
One community may claim to have the first AFIS system for a city whose pop-
ulation is over 100,000, another, the first AFIS system for a city over 1,000,000.
If the criterion considered is cost of the AFIS system, does that include the
salaries and overhead of the agency that bought the system? If a single user is
considered, which one agency claims the title?
Here are a few concrete AFIS firsts. In 1977, the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police began operation of the first AFIS system. The system has been changed
over the years, with improvements in hardware, software, management, and
record keeping procedures, but it is still built on the original 1977 system. San
Francisco claimed to have the first AFIS system when its AFIS became opera-
tional in 1984. Faced with a continually growing record database and recog-
nizing the potential for latent print searches, the San Francisco Police
Department, under the direction of Ken Moses, converted records and began
electronic searching based on minutiae. The SFPD became a focal point for
other identification agencies to look to as a means of improving throughput
and accuracy.
The Pierce County (Washington) Sheriff’s Department and the Tacoma
(Washington) Police Departments began using the first joint AFIS system in
1986. The combination of city and county law enforcement agencies sharing
resources provided a service that individually neither of them might have been
able to afford. In 1989, The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Ser-
vices, under the direction of Jack Meagher, implemented the first Statewide
Automated Fingerprint Identification System (SAFIS). While limited to latent
print searches at that time, it marked a significant departure from previous AFIS
installations, since it had a statewide impact. Latent print examiners from New
York to Buffalo could search the same database, use the same equipment, and
share their knowledge as to how to make the system better. By 1995, SAFIS had
been given a tenprint search capability that could interface with a CCH file.
This was followed by the addition of livescan devices that permitted the elec-
tronic capture of tenprint records. Also in 1995, Integrated Automated Fin-
gerprint Identification System (IAFIS) was able to connect with a large city as
the Boston Police Department began direct communications with IAFIS. This
was another milestone in the evolution of AFIS technology.