Government Computer News
FBI plans a big tent for biometrics
Upgrade of fingerprint repository could permit future identifiers
Digg
De.licio.us
Slashdot
Technorati
Image: Hrvoje Knez/FOTOLIA
As for the other exotics, such as earlobe shape, the NGI will have the architecture to extend to them should the laws change. — Jim Loudermilk, FBI
FBI technologists are planning for upgrades that will buttress the law enforcement community’s limited ability to use DNA as a forensic tool, according to a recent briefing the bureau offered on plans for its Next Generation Identification system. NGI is designed to incorporate improved technology into the bureau’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS).
The bureau plans within the next few weeks to request proposals from vendors to build NGI. The agency already has described a phased plan to roll out the upgrades to its existing biometric repository during the next several years.
“DNA has definitely proven its ability to be fabulously accurate,” said Jim Loudermilk, deputy assistant director at the bureau’s Information Technology Operations Division. He cited instances in which DNA evidence has exonerated prisoners, some of whom had been held for decades or faced possible execution.
Many in the general public now believe that law enforcement agencies can routinely use DNA to investigate crimes, Loudermilk told an audience of vendor and government executives at an Industry Advisory Council briefing.
But legal and policy barriers to widespread DNA biometric use work together with the process’ high cost to limit its usefulness, he said.
Another barrier is that existing DNA biometric repositories, including IAFIS, simply don’t hold enough information to compete with the more familiar fingerprint data, he said.
The costs for DNA sequencing now can range into the thousands of dollars for a single forensic sample, Loudermilk said.
But FBI biometric experts estimate that the cost for collecting and sequencing a DNA sample could fall well below $20 in about 15 years, Loudermilk said.
Increased use of DNA as a biometric identifier also raises privacy issues, the FBI official said.
“We are adding a palm print system,” [as part of the NGI upgrade] Loudermilk said. He said the forensic community’s experience with crime scenes has shown that palm print evidence is frequently available. “The Japanese [police] have found palm prints very useful.
“As for the other exotics, such as earlobe shape [and voice prints and gait analysis], the NGI will have the architecture to extend to them should the laws change,” Loudermilk said.
The FBI wants its NGI project to forge faster and higher-quality links to biometric repositories other than those IAFIS now uses, Loudermilk said.
![1105 Government Information Group [justice]](/images/1105logo_website.gif "Government Computer News [justice]")
© 1996-2008 1105 Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
