AFIS terminals

[Stephany Louk-Denney]

I work in a lab, as a latent print examiner, where the examiners do not do their own AFIS entry. We send our latents to our Criminal Records Division to do all AFIS entries. My lab, specifically the latent print section, is trying to document the reasons why we should be doing our own AFIS entry in an attempt to get this changed.

So, I would like to take a survey, either on this site or privately through emails, as to the agencies that have their latent print examiners do their own AFIS entries. To be fair, I'll also collect the information (if any others exist) as to what agencies send their latents to another department to be searched.

Please respond to this post or email me privately at: Stephany.Louk-Denney@mshp.dps.mo.gov

Thank you in advance for your time.

[Charles Parker]

Stephany. My agency has four systems. Local 10-Print, Local Palmprint, State 10-Print, and IAFIS.

In our office we have 7 LPE's and 2 AFIS Technicians. The AT's do the majority of the AFIS Inquiries in the local system only. If a case is assigned to a LPE we have the option of running additionals in the local system. All LPE will enter latent prints in the State and IAFIS as the AT's are not cleared or have the passwords to get on the State or Federal systems.

I find it better having the AT's in house because if they have one they are not sure about they just hunt down one of the LPE's and ask and we give them advice on how they might enter them. All AFIS 10-Print work is done in another building by Fingerprint Technicians in Crime Records.

If you have any other questions you can e-mail me.

[Cindy Rennie]

Stephany:

The Toronto Police Service has five "senior fingerprint technicians", one on each platoon. It is their job to receive the latent fingerprints from the Scenes of Crime officers on their platoon, examine the latents, and search the 'searchable' ones on AFIS. When they identify a latent, they pull the 'hard copy' and verify it. Then they have the identification verified by another qualified member of the AFIS section.

If you want some ammunition to change your current system, tell them that having two people examine the same fingerprints (i.e. the AT and the LPE) is a duplication of effort. Also, if the ATs are less experienced than the LPEs, they might miss something that an LPE would have been able to search and/or identify. (And vice-versa - if the AT is more experienced, the LPE might not be able to see the same detail and would have to waste time consulting with the AT.)

Having one person examine and search the latents would streamline the process and save a lot of time in cross-consultation. Time is money.

[Wayne Reutzel]

Stephanie,
In my unit the LP Examiner is the only one that does latent AFIS inquires. My Specialist do "Ten print" inquires (unknown deceased etc.)
I am of the opinion that most management people believe that if you are a "computer guy" than you’re qualified to do latent print examination via AFIS. That's sad.
I don't know the qualifications of your technicians but, if you really want to find out if they should be doing this why not have them take a latent test, such as the collaborative testing services examination.

[Bill Schade]

I strongly believe that a Latent Print Examiner should be searching his own cases through AFIS databases, local, state, federal, it does not matter.

Just as a certified latent fingerprint examiner is expected to "know" all aspects of the science to include history, classification systems, etc. I believe they should be familiar with AFIS searching.

I also think they should be familiar with the ten print side of the house so they can do their job better. Knowing how prints are taken, stored and organized, as well as how a particular AFIS system plots print detail is invaluable information for a "complete" latent examiner at the top of their game.

It also adds variety to the job and why should latent examiner be denied the pleasure of making a cold hit?

Finally, the reference above to "AFIS Quality" (searchable ones) prints is a thing of the past. If you work with the systems out there today, it quickly becomes aparant that if you can see it and identify it, an AFIS can return valid candidates on a search. The only linitation on what can be searched is now the amount of time you have to go through the search results returned.

JMHO

[Stephany Louk-Denney]

Thank you to everyone who has responded both on this website and privately. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of responses I received. All of the responses, except for one, were in favor of the latent print examiners performing the AFIS searches. I will use all of this information in my quest to change the way things are done in my lab.