Gotcha! FBI launches new biometric systems to nail criminals

[FarCenter]

Nearly 80 years after it began collecting fingerprints on index cards as a way to identify criminals, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is moving to a new system that improves the accuracy and performance of its existing setup while adding more biometrics.

By adding palm print, face and iris image search capabilities, the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) hopes to improve the accuracy of identity searches, make it easier to positively identify and track criminals as they move through the criminal justice system and provide a wider range of tools for crime scene investigators.

To take full advantage of all of the new capabilities, however, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies may need to update their own systems to be able to capture the data, forward it to the FBI and search against the nationwide database.

"Most booking stations are starting to gather all of the modalities -- fingerprints, palm, and face and iris," says Jon Kevin Reid, assistant section chief in the CJIS division. But many regional and local law enforcement systems don't yet capture all of that information, and will need to upgrade their own systems to reap the benefits from the new system.
...

The recently released mobile ID system is one of the more compelling new features in NGI. It lets officers in the field use a handheld fingerprint scanner during a traffic stop and run a two-fingerprint check against the NGI's newly created Repository of Individuals of Special Concern (RISC).

That subset of the criminal master file includes "the worst of the worst," Reid explains, such as criminals with outstanding warrants,known sex offenders and suspected and known terrorists. Responses come back within six seconds, Reid says.

So far, 13 states are using RISC, and the State of Michigan is currently implementing it, says Scott Blanchard, manager of the automated print identification section at the Michigan State Police.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244860/Gotcha_FBI_launches_new_biometric_systems_to_nail_criminals

[grasswire]

1. when dissent is criminalized.......

....all this gathering will be the noose that kills the hope of freedom forever

[politichew]

2. Good.

I will never understand the argument, probably because there is no strong argument, of rejecting technology that makes it more difficult for a criminal to hide among us.

It seems biometric data will also decrease the amount of people falsely accused of crimes, as DNA evidence has done.