What Is Fingerprint Analysis?
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Fingerprint identification, also known as dactyloscopy, or hand print identification, is the process of comparing two instances of friction ridge skin impressions, from human fingers or toes, or even the palm of the hand or sole of the foot, to determine whether these impressions could have come from the same individual.
Since investigators started using fingerprint analysis, and more recently with the addition of IAFIS (Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) there has been a rise in the success rate of previous cold cases.
The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, is a national fingerprint and criminal history system that responds to requests 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help our local, state, and federal partners—and our own investigators—solve and prevent crime and catch criminals and terrorists. IAFIS provides automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent search capability, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints and responses.
IAFIS was launched on July 28, 1999. Prior to this time, the processing of ten-print fingerprint submissions was largely a manual, labor-intensive process, taking weeks or months to process a single submission. The FBI has been the national repository for fingerprints and related criminal history data since 1924, when more than 800,000 fingerprint records from the National Bureau of Criminal Identification and Leavenworth Penitentiary were consolidated with Bureau files. The first use of computers to search fingerprint files took place in October 1980.
Since it was first used, IAFIS has helped solve hundreds of cold cases (cases that all leads have been exhausted and have to be closed). Every year the FBI award one person or group of people a ‘Latent hit of the year award’, this is awarded for the significant involvement with the closing of a case.
Since investigators started using fingerprint analysis, and more recently with the addition of IAFIS (Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) there has been a rise in the success rate of previous cold cases.
The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, is a national fingerprint and criminal history system that responds to requests 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help our local, state, and federal partners—and our own investigators—solve and prevent crime and catch criminals and terrorists. IAFIS provides automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent search capability, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints and responses.
IAFIS was launched on July 28, 1999. Prior to this time, the processing of ten-print fingerprint submissions was largely a manual, labor-intensive process, taking weeks or months to process a single submission. The FBI has been the national repository for fingerprints and related criminal history data since 1924, when more than 800,000 fingerprint records from the National Bureau of Criminal Identification and Leavenworth Penitentiary were consolidated with Bureau files. The first use of computers to search fingerprint files took place in October 1980.
Since it was first used, IAFIS has helped solve hundreds of cold cases (cases that all leads have been exhausted and have to be closed). Every year the FBI award one person or group of people a ‘Latent hit of the year award’, this is awarded for the significant involvement with the closing of a case.