CLPEX Chat Board

My agency often requires obtaining ten print cards from the FBI for latent comparisons. In the past couple of years, we have noticed a decrease in the quality of the cards we receive. The images are blurred, pixelated and just plain illegible. A recent visit to the JABS website has made me realize that the digital images of the cards are so much better. However, not every FBI record is accessible through that site. Does anyone have a better solution? I am hoping that we could get digital copies of these cards, rather than printouts. CJIS tells me their printouts are the highest quality and there is nothing they can do. They will email the cards, but what they email is the printout. Can anyone help?

Here is an example of the CJIS images.

I recently sent for hard copies of some fingerprint cards I needed for comparison from the FBI, because the FAX machine in our laboratory is not of sufficient fineness to receive legible fingerprint cards. It takes about a week by snail mail, but they are much better than FAX. I have never had email attachments sent. The hard copies I received were no worse than print-outs from our local database, but not as good as the print-outs from the state database. Usable.

These are copies received by snail mail, our agency doesn't allow us to work from a fax.

Use a ULW IRQ request and submit it to the JABS email address from your LEO account. Once you get the response, save it as an image and print it with uPrint or CardViewer. It takes about 5 minutes total.

PM me if you need help.

Or after you get the IRQ request back and send it through uPrint or CardViewer, just work with the bmp onscreen. You always lose quality when you print to paper.

Our agency doesn't permit latent print comparisons to a fax copy of the card. Not to mention those would likely be even worse!

To those who are able to send and receive IRQ requests, how did you get that set up? I have downloaded the ULW software but am being told that we cannot be set up for IRQ requests. I went this route because the cards we request from the FBI through the mail are the worst possible copies. The cards used to be fine, but something has happened and they are no longer comparison quality. Does the access to IRQ's depend on what kind of agency you are? Trying to get this access has been ongoing for over a year and now we are being told that we can't do IRQ's. Any suggestions or help?

We did nothing different for IRQ's. But, then again, we've always been able to send them.

The biggest mistake people usually make is not having the right numbers entered into Program Settings of the ULW or LE software or not having the right Prefix on your TCN number if the data is routed through your state agency.

At least for us. Other states may be set up differently.

I believe it is up to each state agency that acts as "gatekeeper" on FBI access whether they will allow those requests

Jeff Carlyle at FBI/CJIS is a wealth of information and can probably tell you if you have the ability to download records from IAFIS

This topic caught my attention because I just requested fingerprint exemplars from the FBI (always via snail mail). Can someone tell me what JABS and IRQ are?

IRQ is an Image ReQuest using the ULW software to request a ten print card of an individual using their FBI#.

Not sure about JABS.

Joint Automated Booking System (JABS)

Open ULW
if version 6, click the 'image request' button to initiate the process
if version 5, choose file -> other(new) transactions -> IRQ (I don't have version 5.x anymore so if it's slightly off, I apologize)

Enter the CJIS agency ID as the destination and your ORI as both the Originating Agency ID and the Controlling Agency ID

Enter the FBI number (either obtained via III via a SID that you hit on or because you hit in ULW and want to download the entire card)
Select that you want to retrieve all images from the Finger Numbers Requested

(all of these fields are on one screen in ULW 6, if memory serves, they're on two different screens in 5.x)

Save the file, which will save as the filenname FBI#.irq.

Logon to LEO.gov, go to the email page and attach that file to an email and send it to the jabs submission email address

wait about 45 seconds (on a good day) and you'll get a response back with a file.

Use Card Viewer or UPrint to open and save your card as an image file, and print it.

The whole process takes about 7 minutes if you're quick and JABS is fast.



You can also request permission to the JABS sig in LEO.gov and just type the fbi number right in the request fingerprints box from the main portal, but you don't get a 10P card out of it, you just get access to the images which print out all wierd and singularly.

email me at firstname dot lastname at kingcounty dot gov if you want me to walk you through it.

Thank you both so much for your responses, this will make things much easier for us.