FBI biometric fingerprint lab gets a party on its 100th birthday

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is celebrating the centennial of its fingerprint lab. A release from the agency says the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division marked the 100th anniversary of the FBI’s national repository for fingerprints and related criminal history data, now called the Biometric Services Section, at a ceremony in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

The first identity division at the FBI was established in 1924. For years, the unit commonly known as “Ident” performed manual fingerprinting operations, including recovery and matching. Technology has changed the process utterly. The CJIS Division says its Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification system and Next Generation Identification (NGI) system have led to less than 3 percent of fingerprint transactions being physically handled by an examiner.

Moreover, the NGI now also leverages iris biometrics and palm prints, scars and tattoos, and the Interstate Photo System. And it has in the past done contracts for facial recognition services with Clearview AI.

In comments made at the ceremony, FBI Director Christopher Wray recognized the FBI’s “century-long legacy of pioneering leadership in biometric identification.”

“The CJIS Biometric Services Section is made up of around 600 personnel who, in addition to providing many other state-of-the-art services, process nearly two million fingerprints from around the world each year,” said Wray. “We’re enthusiastic about the continued growth of the repository and remain committed to providing our partners in state and local law enforcement and others around the globe with the critical tools they need to keep people safe.”

CJIS Division Acting Assistant Director Timothy A. Ferguson the division “continuously looks to provide the best possible biometric tools to fight crime and terrorism.”

Iris biometrics offer advantages but FBI needs more in its database

WFIN Fox quotes Brian Griffith, deputy assistant director in the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) lab in West Virginia, praising iris biometrics as a “game-changer”.

“Iris gives the ability to have nearly the same level of identification accuracy through an iris image, and, the only thing holding us back today from using iris more like fingerprint is just the size of the repository,” he says.

The FBI currently has about 4 million irises in a database, compared to 162 million sets of fingerprints.

WFIN also quotes CJIS Assistant Second Chief Amy Blasher, who says iris scans have become widely used in state jails and prisons. “As they’re booking, they’re taking an iris scan, and as they’re releasing or removing that prisoner, they’re taking another picture of the iris and checking the repository,” she says. “And you would not believe how many prisoners who were … almost released are not the same person. So that’s one of the best use cases that we’re seeing.”

Advantages for officers in the field include the touchless nature of the scan, which with advanced scanners can be done from 36 inches away, and the speed. Iris records are automatically linked to fingerprint records once entered into the FBI’s repository.

Cost and awareness remain hurdles for wide adoption, but agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security have also already begun testing iris biometrics. There is also the ubiquitous question of data privacy, with some observers noting that debates over iris biometrics will have to wait until long-running debates about facial recognition stop raging.

Article Topics

ABIS  |  AFIS  |  biometric database  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  FBI  |  law enforcement  |  NGI  |  police