Fingerprint - Interpol AFIS Expert Group

The IAEG is currently composed of representatives from eight member countries: Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States, representatives from Interpol and an observer from Europol. It is the charter of the IAEG to develop and propose for adoption by the international law enforcement community and suppliers of AFIS systems, standards for the inter-operability between AFIS systems regardless of supplier. The IAEG’s focus is to provide general guidance to countries/organizations acquiring, developing, integrating, and operating national AFIS systems. The IAEG actively promotes implementable approaches to the international electronic exchange of fingerprint images and data.

This web site currently includes six documents designed to provide assistance to those countries desiring to purchase and/or develop an AFIS system:

	History of Group
	Acquisition Guidelines for National AFIS
	Model Clauses for AFIS Acquisition
	Lessons Learned for Implementing National AFIS
	Recommendations for Best Practices of Digital Capture of Mugshots
	Guidelines for the Developed Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS)
	AFIS Expert Group Presentation ( 202 KB)
	Fingerprint Standards
	Companies

The Acquisition Guidelines provide advice for acquiring national AFIS systems derived from the joint experience of IAEG delegates. The recommendations included in this document apply specifically to planning and writing the proposal and entering the contract. The IAEG intends to issue additional guidelines covering subsequent stages of life cycle management, such as integration, installation, moigration from legacy systems, and operations and maintenance in the near future.

The Model Clauses document is intended to provide the reader with a convenient listing of Information Exchange Standards and Specifications related to the interchange of fingerprint data to be used in the acquisition of an AFIS, as well as potential contract language to be used. This will allow for a higher level of interoperability among systems that are manufactured by different vendors and suppliers.

The Lessons Learned contribute valuable advice on the program management and control of AFIS projects and for connecting national AFIS to regional and provincial users. These lessons are derived from experiences of the IAEG delegates in procuring, integrating and operating Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems.

The Best Practices document has been developed by a technical committee assigned to the IAEG. It includes recommendations for the capture of mugshots and facial images. The best compromise was sought between the requirements of the police forces as well as the size of the image files.

The expert group has now prepared a presentation ( 202 KB) which indicates its role in creating common standards for fingerprint image transmission. The presentation is in 4 parts and outlines the creation of the group, its achievements , the goals of the group and a summary which indicates the need for the group to go forward. The group has planned two meetings for 2001 and this presentation shall be updated as the groups work evolves. The group hopes that you find its work to be of use and is open to hear your comment.

These documents are advisory in nature. They are intended to assist countries to gain valuable insight into the difficult process of acquiring and implementing national AFIS systems. If you have any questions concerning information presented in this site please contact Mr. Mark Branchflower, IAEG Secretary, at

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Fingerprint - Interpol AFIS Expert Group