Get FBI Updates

Home About Us CJIS Fingerprints & Other Biometrics IAFIS

The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, is a national fingerprint and criminal history system that responds to requests 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help our local, state, and federal partners and our own investigatorssolve and prevent crime and catch criminals and terrorists. IAFIS provides automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent search capability, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints and responses. What is included in IAFIS: Not only fingerprints, but corresponding criminal histories; mug shots; scars and tattoo photos; physical characteristics like height, weight, and hair and eye color; and aliases. The system also includes civil fingerprints, mostly of individuals who have served or are serving in the U.S. military or have been or are employed by the federal government. The fingerprints and criminal history information are submitted voluntarily by state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies.

How big it is: IAFIS is the largest criminal fingerprint database in the world, housing the fingerprints and criminal histories for more than 70 million subjects in the criminal master file, along with more than 34 million civil prints. Included in our criminal database are fingerprints from 73,000 known and suspected terrorists processed by the U.S. or by international law enforcement agencies who work with us. How fast it works: The average response time for an electronic criminal fingerprint submission is about 27 minutes, while electronic civil submissions are processed within an hour and 12 minutes. IAFIS processed more than 61 million ten-print submissions during Fiscal Year 2010. When it started: IAFIS was launched on July 28, 1999. Prior to this time, the processing of ten-print fingerprint submissions was largely a manual, labor-intensive process, taking weeks or months to process a single submission. The FBI has been the national repository for fingerprints and related criminal history data since 1924, when more than 800,000 fingerprint records from the National Bureau of Criminal Identification and Leavenworth Penitentiary were consolidated with Bureau files. The first use of computers to search fingerprint files took place in October 1980. Whats new: While IAFIS has been an effective system, criminal and terrorist threats have evolved over the past decade. Todays environment demands faster and more advanced iden tification capabilities. The Next Generation Identification program, or NGI, represents a quantum leap in fingerprint identification that will help us in solving investigations, preventing crime, and apprehending criminals and terrorists. NGIwhich delivers an incremental replacement of IAFISprovides automated fingerprint and latent search capabilities, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints to more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and other authorized criminal justice partners 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Upon completion, NGI will have the ability to process fingerprint transactions more effectively and accurately. With the delivery of NGI Increment 4 in the summer of 2014, NGI will effectively replace IAFIS.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/iafis/iafis

Five Key Services

The five key IAFIS services are:

1: Ten-Print-Based Fingerprint Identification Services A ten-print fingerprint submission contains 10 rolled fingerprint impressions and corresponding flat fingerprint impressions. Criminal Ten-Print Fingerprint Submission: Fingerprints are acquired as a result of an arrest at the city, county, state, or federal level. The fingerprints are processed locally and then electronically forwarded to a state or federal agency system for processing. The fingerprints are then sent through the CJIS Wide Area Network to IAFIS for processing. Mailed ten-print fingerprint cards are converted to an electronic format in the IAFIS environment. Civil Ten-Print Fingerprint Submission: Fingerprints are acquired for background checks for employment, licensing, or other non-criminal justice purposes where authorized by federal and state law and in compliance with appropriate regulations. To determine what occupations are authorized within your state, contact your state police or your state criminal history repository. Like criminal fingerprints, civil fingerprints are processed by local, state, or federal agencies prior to being submitted to IAFIS for processing. For information regarding taking legible fingerprints for ten-print fingerprint submissions, see "Taking Legible Fingerprints. 2: Latent Fingerprint Services IAFIS supports both electronic and hard copy submissions of latent fingerprints. It provides the FBI Laboratory with enhanced search capabilities using databases specially designed for matching latent fingerprints. Latent fingerprint specialists return decisions to the requestor and add any unidentified latent fingerprints and their features to the unsolved latent fingerprint file. 3: Subject Search and Criminal History Services The Interstate Identification Index (III) segment of IAFIS is the national system designed to provide automated criminal history record information. The Interstate Identification Index stores the criminal history record information of federal offenders and those offenders established by participating and non-participating III states. Each record is created through the submission of fingerprint images to IAFIS. The participating states establish and update records within the Interstate Identification Index through the submission of first and subsequent fingerprint images of arrested subjects. Once these records are established, the participating states provide requested criminal history records when an electronic inquiry for a state-maintained record is processed by the system. States in the final stage of the Interstate Identification Index as National Fingerprint File (NFF) participants submit only the first arrest fingerprint images of a subject to establish a pointer record within the index segment. Any subsequent activity related to this NFF pointer record will be the sole responsibility of the NFF participating state. If a direct terminal inquiry or an IAFIS fingerprint inquiry identifies a person with a criminal history in one or more NFF participating states, a criminal history request is forwarded to the participating NFF states criminal history system for the appropriate response. 4: Document and Imaging ServicesDocument Services: IAFIS processes documents associated with criminal history records received in electronic, hard copy, or machine-readable data formats. These documents include arrest dispositions, expungements, and other miscellaneous updates. For more information on criminal history document submission, seeArrest Disposition Submission. Fingerprint Image Services: IAFIS supplies electronic images of fingerprints to authorized agencies upon request. See the Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification (EFTS), Section 3.6-3.7 for more information. Photo Services: IAFIS has the capability to accept, store, and distribute photos. See the EFTS, Appendix K for information regarding photo submission and Section 3.10 for photo retrieval. 5: Remote Ten-Print and Latent Fingerprint Search Services IAFIS supports remote ten-print and latent fingerprint searches by law enforcement agencies. The results of remote ten-print and latent searches are returned electronically and include a list of potential matching candidates and corresponding fingerprints for comparison and identification by the requesting agency.

The FBI will provide the following remote search software packages to criminal justice agencies upon request, free of charge. Remote Fingerprint Editing Software (RFES): This complete software package performs remote searches of IAFIS. RFES supports remote IAFIS transactions, including images and feature-based searches for both ten-print and latent fingerprints. RFES editing and human interface were developed based on use and advice of both local law enforcement and FBI latent fingerprint specialists. See additional information regarding RFES (pdf). Universal Latent Workstation (ULW) Software: This latent software package performs remote latent searches of IAFIS. See additional information regarding ULW.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/iafis/iafis_services