Impact of the Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems

26). In 1967, the United States bailiwick Bureau of Standards and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) worked together to sustain "the minutiae-based AFIS," from the ideas developed by Thibault (p. 26). This is the transcription most widely use today for fingerprint searches.

The word "minutiae" refers to small details, such(prenominal) as those tiny characteristics which make atomic number 53 fingerprint recognizably diametrical from another. The minutiae-based AFIS placement matches those details on the print with similar details which argon found on prints contained in the computing machine files. The system is quite precise: "A thin beam of light scans each print and records the location of up to 100 minutiae. The computer then converts these data into numbers that can be stored on magnetic harrows and retrieved for comparison with prints interpreted from the position of a offensive" (Elmer-De Witt, 1985, p. 96). AFIS atomic number 18 an example of a highly sophisticated crap of engineering science. Not only do these systems note fingerprint minutiae such as ridge endings and bifurcations, but they also "record their comparative position and orientation (Kurre, 1987, p. 15). Because of this, there is little difficulty in making a positive match.

When a crime has occurred, officers at the scene of the crime take fingerprints from various surfaces. The prints taken from the scene are called "latent"

Thus, the AFIS is an arrogant success, and as standards begin to be better incorporated into this technology it will undoubtedly come to enhance criminal investigations at both the national and the local levels in ways which were antecedently undreamed of by law enforcement officers of the past.

The files of the computer store are known as "tenprint" card data. This is the term which refers to the ten fingerprints which are made when someone is booked for a criminal charge. The computerized AFIS system "scans fingerprints from a tenprint fingerprint card, plots the characteristics of the ridges, loops, whorls and other fingerprint codes on a 'X'/'Y' internal grid and records these plots" (Titus, 1991, p. 50).

Then, when a "latent" print has been taken from the scene of a crime, it is, hopefully, matched with one of the prints obtained from these "tenprint" cards, thus providing a character reference of identification.

New Orleans has also developed its own AFIS system, with fine results. The New Orleans system is especially successful because it uses the newfangled technology of visual disk retentivity. It has been noted that the "AFIS optic disk storage computer is one of the most effective law enforcement tools available to modern police agencies" (Titus, 1991, p. 50). The advantages of the system used in New Orleans include not only the despatch and accuracy which is typically associated with AFIS, but also the fact that storage of data on optical disks saves a great subscribe of space as compared with other filing systems for hard data. In fact, "ten years of records can be stored in an optical disk library the size of a small outhouse closet. Over two years of reports can be unplowed online for instant retrieval on 12-inch optical disks in one juke box" (p. 49). This expanded storage space gives optical disk AFIS a significant edge over the erstwhile(a) systems, and indeed shows promise for the future development of a across the nation AFIS database.

The accuracy of the AFIS also res
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