IAFIS
Definition
Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System; the US FBI's national fingerprint database. Generates candidate lists ranked by similarity score; the final identification decision is made by a human examiner.
- Full name
- Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System
- Operator
- US FBI
- Output
- Candidate list ranked by similarity score
- Final decision
- Made by a human fingerprint examiner
Common questions
Why does IAFIS return a candidate list instead of a single automatic match?+
The system is designed as a search tool that narrows millions of records down to a small ranked shortlist based on minutiae similarity, leaving the actual identification decision, including the risk of a false match, to a trained human examiner applying ACE-V methodology.
How does IAFIS relate to NGI, the FBI's current system?+
NGI (Next Generation Identification) replaced IAFIS as the FBI's operational biometric database, adding capabilities such as palm prints and facial recognition, though IAFIS remains the term commonly referenced in older case law and legacy documentation.
Related terms
- ACE-V
- Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation, Verification: the four-stage method for latent print examination used by accredited forensic fingerprint laboratories. Analysis examines the latent in...
- Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 (BSA)
- India's current evidence statute, which replaced the Indian Evidence Act 1872. Section 63 of the BSA governs electronic records and requires a...
- Blind Verification
- The procedure in which a second fingerprint examiner independently performs the Analysis and Comparison stages without knowledge of the first examiner's conclusion....
- CFSL
- Central Forensic Science Laboratory: a central government lab operating under DFSS. India has CFSLs at New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati,...
- Confirmation Bias
- The cognitive tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or...
- OIG Report
- The US Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General report (March 2006) that analysed the Mayfield misidentification, identifying three procedural failures:...
- PCAST Report (2016)
- The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 2016 report on forensic science that found firearms mark analysis had not yet...
- Perseverance Bias
- The tendency to maintain a committed conclusion in the face of contradictory evidence. Implicated in the SCRO examiners' insistence on the McKie...
- Sequential Unmasking
- An information-sequencing protocol in which the examiner receives the questioned material first, completes and documents the analysis before receiving the known standards,...