Cross-jurisdictional law enforcement shares biometric information
Metropolitan areas across the country, such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami-Dade, face situations whereby individuals cross jurisdictional boundaries to commit crimes and return to their respective city of residence. Many times these individuals are arrested in neighboring cities on misdemeanor charges, while neighboring jurisdictions have issued felony arrest warrants for the same individuals. These criminals can potentially go undetected for years.
To address this problem in the metropolitan and neighboring areas of Washington, D.C., nine local law enforcement jurisdictions recently banded together to form a network of biometric databases for cross-jurisdictional law enforcement.
Known as the National Capital Region, agencies from Fairfax County, Va.; Montgomery and Prince George’s County, Md.; Washington, D.C.; and the U.S. Secret Service have each established an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). This system enables cross searches between another agency’s criminal database, based on biometric information.
Provided by the Biometric Division of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc., the AFIS was designed to provide an interoperable network, while meeting each jurisdiction’s specific operational and legislative requirements.
Each agency built an AFIS that would enable an officer to seamlessly search a database across jurisdictional boundaries. With a subsequent upgrade of this network, seamless connectivity of data has expanded to mobile units out in the field.
Fast fingerprint matching in the field
For example, if a Fairfax County patrol officer stops a suspect, the AFIS allows the officer to capture the detained individual’s fingerprints and submit those prints to the Fairfax County AFIS. Should those prints provide a match, the officer is then informed of any previous arrest record and any possible outstanding warrants.
If the Fairfax system does not find a fingerprint match, the interoperable network then simultaneously transfers the data to an AFIS located in the metropolitan area of Washington D.C., or to systems in neighboring Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties.
Searching those databases, a positive match would quickly provide the officer with the criminal history of the individual’s unlawful activities in neighboring jurisdictions and alert the officer of any possible outstanding arrest warrant issued for the detained person.
Law enforcement agencies in Fairfax County, Va.; Montgomery and Prince George’s County, Md.; and Washington, D.C., all use Motorola’s advanced Biometric Identification Systems (BIS). Each system was specifically designed to meet the operational, logistical and legislative requirements of the respective counties and states.
The solutions included multi-modal biometric systems for fingerprints, palm prints and facial images. Advanced workstations were installed for latent processing of fingerprints and palm prints, as well as for new bookings.
Overall benefits of interoperable systems
Besides sharing information with neighboring counties, interoperability extends to the Sheriff’s Information Management System (SIMS), Virginia State Police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Additionally, the new biometric system was designed to be compatible with the legacy technologies still active within the region.
By providing faster matching speeds, greater accuracy and access to more databases, the technology used by the National Capital Region has increased positive identifications of suspects to expedite crime solving.
According to Motorola, officials also have seen a dramatic reduction in hardware procurement costs and a long-term reduction in maintenance and support expenditures. Furthermore, the joint procurement enabled the agencies to secure Homeland Security Grants, based on demonstrating a positive return on investment (ROI). A cooperative training program included attendees from each agency to ease ASIS implementation.
Motorola offers a range of biometric equipment for law enforcement agencies. Product line includes Printrak Latent Station that combines a PC, monitor, camera, software and FBI-certified scanner for capturing, encoding and submitting fingerprints and palm prints from one central location. In addition, hand-held Mobile AFIS captures both fingerprints and facial images at sites such as traffic stops or border crossings to verify a person’s identity.
For more information about Motorola’s products and solutions, visit http://www.motorola.com/.
Motorola Inc. provided this case history.