Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS)
The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) is a comprehensive national system managed by the FBI that facilitates the collection, analysis, and comparison of digital fingerprint data. Operational since July 1999, IAFIS contains over 55 million digitized fingerprint records, significantly enhancing the efficiency of law enforcement investigations in the United States. This advanced automated system enables law enforcement agencies to rapidly share fingerprint information, which drastically reduces the time required for fingerprint identification—from what could take weeks or months to just hours.
IAFIS provides various services, including the Civil Ten-Print Fingerprint Submission for background checks and the Criminal Ten-Print Fingerprint Submission for arrest records. The system supports both matched and unmatched fingerprint evidence, making it easier to identify suspects based on partial prints collected from crime scenes. Furthermore, IAFIS aims to improve interoperability with other agencies and broaden its biometric capabilities, connecting with systems like the IDENT used by the Department of Homeland Security.
Over the years, IAFIS has grown significantly in size and scope, with the database containing approximately 151 million images by 2020. However, its operation has raised concerns regarding privacy, especially after decisions to exempt the database from certain Privacy Act provisions that allow individuals to review their own records for accuracy. Overall, IAFIS stands as a vital tool in contemporary law enforcement, contributing significantly to crime solving and public safety efforts.
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Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS)
DATE: Became operational in July, 1999
IDENTIFICATION: Automated national system, maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for collecting, analyzing, and comparing digital copies of human fingerprints.
SIGNIFICANCE: Containing digitized fingerprint records of more than fifty-five million subjects, the electronic database of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System has made revolutionary contributions to increasing the efficiency of law-enforcement investigations throughout the United States by collecting, storing, and sharing forensic information that can be rapidly searched on computers.
More commonly known as IAFIS, the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System is operated by the Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The system is a technologically advanced automated fingerprint database that allows law-enforcement agencies throughout the United States to share information. The system is built on the largest biometric global database of fingerprints and related criminal history information in the world and uses advanced computer technology to enable extremely fast fingerprint matches. Before the development of this technology, manual fingerprint searches could take technicians weeks, months, and sometimes even years to process and thereby greatly slowed down investigators’ attempts to identify offenders during criminal investigations.
IAFIS offers several basic services, not all of which have direct criminal justice applications. For example, the service’s Civil Ten-Print Fingerprint Submission program is used by many civilian companies and institutions for background checks for employment, issuing licenses, and other functions not necessarily related to criminal justice concerns. By contrast, the service’s Criminal Ten-Print Fingerprint Submission program collects copies of complete ten-digit sets of fingerprints of persons arrested by all levels of law enforcement throughout the country. The automated system converts the prints to an electronic format that can be searched online. The Subject Search and Criminal Histories Services and the Interstate Identification Index segments of IAFIS store federal and other government agency fingerprint images of arrested suspects. The latent fingerprint Services supports electronic unidentified latent fingerprints and unsolved files.
IAFIS offers uninterrupted, around-the-clock service to crime investigators at all levels of government. When state and local agencies submit requests for electronic fingerprint data to the service, they generally receive responses within two hours. This time-saving technology has revolutionized the field of fingerprint identification by supporting law enforcement’s historical efforts to classify and search forensic evidence as quickly as possible. Rapid matching of fingerprint evidence helps criminal investigators resolve their cases while other evidence remains fresh, thereby increasing arrest and conviction rates.
Criminals never leave prints as complete and perfectly rolled at crime scenes as those that police stations collect on cards when they process arrestees. Indeed, experienced fingerprint technicians often feel fortunate to collect only a few latent or partial prints at crime scenes. Another contribution to law enforcement made by IAFIS technology has been the greater ease with which it can match incomplete and imperfect prints.
Among the standing goals of IAFIS is increasing its connections, or interoperability, with other agencies and with law-enforcement bodies throughout the world. The FBI also actively seeks to broaden the range of its biometric identification capabilities, particularly with the IDENT system used by the US Department of Homeland Security to process immigration data requests. By 2008, IAFIS had begun development on its Next Generation Identification (NGI) system to connect with the IDENT system to increase the efficiency of identifying criminals, suspected terrorists, and undocumented aliens attempting to enter the United States. The NGI system became operational in 2011. By the following year, the database had 13.6 million images from more than 7 million individuals. By 2014, the number of images had increased to more than 100 million, and by 2020, the number of images had increased to about 151 million.
In 2017, several organizations condemned the FBI's decision to make the database exempt from a Privacy Act provision that allows individuals to inspect their own records to check for fairness and accuracy.
Bibliography
"FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division Celebrates 100th Anniversary of National Fingerprint Repository." FBI, 10 July 2024, www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-s-criminal-justice-information-services-division-celebrates-100th-anniversary-of-national-fingerprint-repository. Accessed 16 Aug. 2024.
Komarinski, Peter. Automated Fingerprint Identification System. St. Louis: Elsevier, 2005. Print.
Lee, Henry C., and R. E. Gaensslen, eds. Advances in Fingerprint Technology. 2nd ed. Boca Raton: CRC, 2001. Print.
Ogle, Robert R., Jr. Crime Scene Investigation and Reconstruction. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2007. Print.
"Next Generation Identification (NGI) Retention and Searching of Noncriminal Justice Fingerprint Submissions." FBI, www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/more-fbi-services-and-information/freedom-of-information-privacy-act/department-of-justice-fbi-privacy-impact-assessments/next-generation-identification-ngi-retention-and-searching-of-noncriminal-justice-fingerprint-submissions. Accesed 16 Aug. 2024.
Saferstein, Richard. Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2007. Print.