Kansas law enforcement upgrades to Idemia ABIS

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) has completed the upgrade to its state fingerprint database, replacing the outdated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) with the new Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS). In 2021, the state entered into a primary contract with Idemia as the biometric solution provider.

In the KCJIS Newsletter for May 2024, the State of Kansas says that ABIS will eventually include face and iris recognition in addition to fingerprints, palm prints, and latent prints.

“The upgrade to ABIS will aid the criminal justice community in countless ways. This new technology makes the process of identifying individuals and determining if they have a criminal history record much more seamless,” says Tony Mattivi, Director of KBI.

The new biometric system currently houses over two million fingerprint records and more than 590,000 palm prints. The ABIS is seamlessly integrated with national and regional systems, facilitating searches against the FBI Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. Moreover, the system is linked to Missouri’s AFIS, allowing for cross-state print searches.

“We know crime extends beyond the boundaries of cities, counties and states, so law enforcement agencies must have a reliable way to exchange identity records in order to solve complex crimes. Kansas’s ABIS now meets this challenge,” Mattivi adds.

Initially, the state estimated a cost of approximately $5.5 million. With cost increases, apparently due to schedule delays and the extension of the project manager and independent verification and validation (IV&V) contracts, the project has been paid for with a one-time legislative appropriation. The amount of the appropriation is referred to as $6.8 million in an audit report, but reported at $6.89 million by local NBC affiliate KSHB.

The audit report indicates that the project scope and cost are satisfactory; however, it highlights high-risk ratings for the schedule and quality. Initially, the ABIS project was scheduled to go live on January 25, 2024, but due to multiple delays, it went live on May 1, 2024.

Article Topics

ABIS  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  IDEMIA  |  Idemia Public Security  |  Kansas  |  NGI  |  police