Next phase of FBI technology: Iris scans, gait and scent detection

04-10-2011 • post-gazette.com/

The RISC -- the FBI is big on acronyms -- is just one facet of Next Generation. PG GRAPHIC • Next Generation Identification System Built by Lockheed Martin and housed at the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division in the West Virginia hills, it will eventually replace the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, that police have relied on since 1999. The system is designed to incorporate all manner of biometric data as new technology emerges, from iris scans to gait recognition and even scent detection, so that law enforcement can quickly identify criminals and terrorists here and around the world. For now, Next Generation handles mostly prints, "our bread and butter," said Mr. Traxler. But the new system is faster and more reliable. Beyond checking someone against the repository, which takes only seconds, police can now compare prints to the much larger FBI database of 70 million prints in about 10 minutes for a high-priority case, a half-hour for routine cases. Civil fingerprint checks, such as those done for employment background screening, used to take 24 hours but can now be done in as little as 15 minutes.