| Author | Message | ||
     Jenny O'Hare (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: 70.49.147.145 |
When was afis created like what year did it go into use?its something i cant seam to find it anywear on the web.if someone could please explain to me when it was created.i would really appreciate it .Its for a science project.so i kind of need an answer soon. | ||
| michele triplett |
AFIS is a computer system that stores and retrieves fingerprint images. Each set of fingerprints are entered into the computer and given a numeric identification number. The AFIS computer system has different ways of retrieving fingerprint images. You can enter the numeric number and get the images, or you can enter an image and retrieve the numeric number that is associated with this image. There are different types of AFIS computer systems and they all have slightly different capabilities, but these are the basic features they all share. It’s about the same concept as buying a calculator. They all have slightly different functions but they all add, subtract, multiply and divide. Prior to having AFIS, fingerprint cards were stored in filing cabinets. If you had 500,000 fingerprint cards in file and you had a person who was trying to conceal their identification, searching every card in file in order to compare this persons prints to known prints would have been virtually impossible. The fingerprint cards in file were grouped according to certain characteristics (known as the Henry Classification System) so every card wouldn’t have had to be searched, but even searching a small section would have been a big task. Now imagine if you had a single fingerprint from a crime scene. You would have had to search all the 500,000 cards in your file. With each fingerprint card having an image of each finger (10 images per card), a fingerprint examiner would have had to search 500,000 x 10= 5,000,000 images. Since this is impossible, crime scene fingerprint were usually just put in a file until a suspect became available. Then the images could be compared to the suspect. With AFIS technology many fingerprint images can be entered into the computer and within a matter of minutes the numeric number that is associated with this image is generated. That is if the person had been fingerprinted before and their fingerprint images were entered into AFIS. Hope that helps, Michele | ||
| Webservant |
Biometric fingerprinting also uses computers for the basic matching of prints, but those systems are typically nothing like law enforcement insofar as the QA/QC and standards used to effect an "identification." In biometric fingerprinting, there is typically no pretense of making a positive identification and it is more along the lines of merely being "close enough" to trigger a green light for access. Biometrics typically are designed for business processes where a person wants to be recognized (criminals do not fit into that category). Conversely, law enforcement AFIS is engineered to do the opposite - to screen for persons attempting to evade detection. Biometric fingerprint systems work well to replace PINs, passwords and ID bracelets (or similar tokens) for controlled groups of persons such as computer users or prison inmates. In those situations, the person who wants to use their computer or the prisoner who wants to come in from the exercise yard can be denied access until (often after repeated attempts) they carefully provide a fingerprint that the system is capable of matching. By analogy, biometrics can be thought of as similar to the business process of an electronic card reader at a toll booth permitting a car to pass through, while law enforcement AFIS would be more similar to an officer querying NCIC to see if the national law enforcement database indicates that car is stolen or was involved in a crime. The anti-fingerprint websites at the bottom of the opening page at onin.com/fp are not really anti-fingerprint identification (they do not oppose tracking criminals from arrest records and crime scene latent prints) as much as they are anti-biometric fingerprint tracking. And, considering that biometric fingerprint systems sometimes make impossible claims (there is no such thing as purely "lights-out" single print positive identification), those anti-biometric fingerprinting websites may have the correct idea about the potential abuse of biometric fingerprint tracking outside the forensic science/law enforcement arena... especially if there are negative consequences associated with such non-scientific "almost or probable identifications." | ||
| Ernie Hamm |
AFIS is simply an acronym for Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Any computer system designed for this purpose will be an AFIS system. There are different company names associated with their individual AFIS designs and the FBI developed the IAFIS, which is an Integrated AFIS. You may have seen AFIX, which a commerical name for a PC based AFIS system usually having a smaller database than the larger systems. | ||
| Catherine Lavallee |
This question relates to AFIS: isn't there another system in use that uses computers for the basic matching of prints? | ||
| Ron |
Thanks for the information. From what I read, 20 minutes for an identification of someone getting fingerprinted and a match from IAFIS seems like normal operations to me. The latent searches I can understand would mean added load to the CPU cycles, but 10-print searches should be the everday workings of IAFIS. The 20 minute average to identify a set of prints in 2002 is quite surprising given the stats for the rollout. Amazing that on average, someone fingerprinted will be identified in about 20 minutes. | ||
| Steve Everist |
I remember we got online with IAFIS and did some test searches along with a few others. Then the computer we used for our IAFIS searches crashed. It took a while to get it back up and running. During that time I received a phone call from the FBI asking me if there were any problems, as they had noticed we hadn't done any searches in long time. I think we were one of the earlier remote locations to be up and running with IAFIS, especially on the west coast. When we initially got it up and running, I asked if there were any limits to number of searches. They said that there wasn't at that time, but depending on the future load that could change. I'm guessing that they've expanded their capacity for searches. I just wish we could do a more broad search each time, instead of doing several searches for each latent. | ||
| Kasey Wertheim |
Ron, Perhaps part of the faster turnaround is due to something I have heard... that the FBI had expected many more inquiries than they are currently receiving, therefore the processors are not working as hard and can return results faster. Either that or they have upgraded the processors to handle the workload more efficiently. I wonder if anyone knows which it is? | ||
| Ron |
Something interesting that I found while searching the records of Congress. It stated that in 2002, the average time to get a hit from IAFIS from a 10-print search was 20 minutes! A search of a latent print took on average of 3 hours and 16 minutes. This far surpasses the benchmarks that IAFIS stated in their goals. I guess that the HP hardware performs much better than they thought it would perform in actual use. Really amazing that it only takes 20 minutes on average to identify someone when they are fingerprinted. | ||
| Webmaster |
SFPD's first report on AFIS successes published with the IAI (Vol 35:2, pp. 2 & 11) cited: During a typical year in San Francisco, manual labor produces about 60 hits. In its first three weeks of operation, the new AFIS computer identified 117 suspects, all of which were later confirmed by human eye or other identification. ... In April alone, the computer made hits that located the prime suspects in 51 burglaries, 15 robberies, eight homicides, three sexual assaults and other crimes.Maybe the case you mention was one of the eight homicides. Ken Moses, supervisor of California's first AFIS (he's now retired from SFPD), may know the case. | ||
| frank kelly |
I seem to recall, that way back in time, one of the first matches made with AFIS was in Calif.. Serial killer, left his print on a victim's vehicle. Print was entered into Afis, with no match. Some time later, subject arrested for minor crime, ten print card was entered into AFIS, and the match was made. Dose anyone out there know which case it was. If so, please email me RANKK@AOL.COM Det. Frank Kelly. Greenwich Police Dept. Greenwich, CT. ID Section. Thanks |
