Fingerprint - Interpol AFIS Expert Group

Interpol, through the Interpol AFIS Expert Working Group (IAEWG), promotes the use of standards for the capture, storage and transmission of electronic fingerprint, demographic and other biometric data.

The reliability of fingerprints as a means of providing automated person identification is primarily determined by the quality of data obtained at the point of fingerprint capture. For fingerprints to remain a 'reliable' biometric, minimum data standards must be maintained and promoted by Interpol as part of its role within the international law enforcement community.

The IAEWG recognizes the 'Gold Standard' for fingerprint data capture and storage declared during the 3rd Interpol Symposium on Fingerprints, Lyon October 2003. The IAEWG has facilitated the application of the 'Gold Standard' by implementing changes to the INT-I NIST standard (version 4.22) to reflect the recommendations proposed during the Symposium.

The IAEWG supports a 'minimum' requirement approach to fingerprint capture for use within the AFIS environment to include;

• Fully rolled and flat (plain) impressions of all 10 fingers, and,
• Plain impressions of the right and left palms.

The use of a sub-set of plain fingerprint impressions will enable verification of identity on a one to one basis with a high degree of confidence. However the use of two plain impressions are not deemed sufficient for automated person identification against large AFIS database holdings where data quality will determine the reliability of any search that is conducted and ultimately the reliability of information used to support operational decisions in the field.

The IAEWG remains committed to the use of ten rolled fingerprints in recognition of the superior accuracy that can be achieved in terms of automated person identification and further recognizing the important role of fingerprints within the forensic environment. The ability to resolve serious crime incidents at an international level can only be enhanced by the collection of all finger (and palm) data available at the time of contact with a person of interest to the law enforcement community.

The use of internationally recognized standards remains an essential part of developing the information sharing network and achieving long term, regular data exchanges between nations. The adoption of minimum fingerprint data capture standards will,

1. Enable timely responses to international search requests
   
   
   • All major AFIS vendors and system integrators have adopted standards (such as NIST and WSQ compression) within their systems allowing the electronic import and export of data across different vendor systems.
     
     
   • Receiving data in a recognized electronic format allows countries to process data automatically and efficiently.
     
     
2. Ensure the highest levels of accuracy are achieved during AFIS search requests,
   
   
   • The use of flat impressions may lead to a higher level of false classification of fingerprint images based upon the limited availability of image data and ultimately false negative responses following any automated matching process.
     
     
3. Ensure that countries are able to comply with search requests.
   
   
   • Many countries within the Interpol community have adopted minimum fingerprint data standards that must be met before fingerprint data can be uploaded and searched on their national AFIS systems.

Fingerprint - Interpol AFIS Expert Group