NCJ Number
185455
Journal
Governing Volume: 13 Issue: 12 Dated: September 2000 Pages: 80-84
Date Published
September 2000
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes the features of the NCIC 2000, the FBI's new-and-improved national crime database, and the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), and discusses the kinds of equipment State and local police agencies must have to reap the benefits of these two systems.
Abstract
The NCIC 2000 and the IAFIS, both of which are now operational, constitute a great leap forward for police departments in their fight against crime. NCIC has many new features, including fingerprint matching, file mugshots, and pictures of identifying tattoos and body marks. Unlike the fingerprinting feature of NCIC 2000, which would be used primarily in the field, police use IAFIS mostly at booking. It checks whether someone who has been arrested has a criminal history in other States. In order to take full advantage of these two systems, however, States and localities must invest in technology upgrades that will cost millions. New Jersey has made such an investment for its State Police. Fingerprint scanners are becoming standard equipment in New Jersey State Police cruisers, and so are high-tech wireless computers and digital cameras. New Jersey State troopers, however, are not yet allowed to scan motorists' fingerprints. They are waiting while the attorney general's office develops rules that will govern from whom police can take fingerprints in the field and under what circumstances. Since hardly any agencies are currently technologically capable of entering mugshots and fingerprints into NCIC 2000, the database is largely devoid of both. Although the FBI envisions having as many as 250,000 fingerprints to match against and thousands more photos, there are thus far only about 150 such images in the database. Each State must upgrade its own communications link between a central State agency and the FBI's computer center in Clarksburg, WV. The FBI has set a July 2002 deadline for States to have this work finished.