NCJ Number
189295
Journal
Sheriff Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2001 Pages: 14-17
Date Published
July 2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article reviews law enforcement agencies' use of the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System to help solve cold cases.
Abstract
The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) was conceived in 1989, developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation beginning in 1993, and put into operation in July 1999. The system's 10-print identification services and criminal-history records information are particularly useful for solving cold cases using latent fingerprint evidence. The system includes an "unsolved latent file" and a corresponding search feature. Every month more than 8,000 fugitives, arrested in a jurisdiction different from that of the original booking agency, are identified by IAFIS. Where once they all would likely have been released on bail, now many are held for extradition. The article concludes that, as more law enforcement agencies obtain and use the technology to electronically submit latent fingerprints to the database, latent fingerprints lifted at crime scenes may be the critical factor in solving hundreds of cases and shrinking agencies' cold case files.