Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System
Quick Summary
The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), now known as the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system, is a national database managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (FBI) in the United States. It serves as a crucial tool for criminal identification by storing and searching vast amounts of digitized fingerprint records.12
The science behind fingerprint identification is called dactyloscopy, which relies on the unique patterns of ridges and furrows found on individual fingerprints. These patterns, including loops, whorls, and arches, along with smaller details called minutiae, are unique to each person and do not change over time.21
Before the advent of automated systems, identifying a suspect based solely on latent fingerprints left at a crime scene was impractical because law enforcement would not know which existing records might match. The development of automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) in the 1980s revolutionized this process, allowing for rapid electronic searching through millions of fingerprint records. Fingerprints identified by these systems are then reviewed by an analyst to confirm a positive match.2
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