Bedfordshire Police increases fingerprint capabilities
Bedfordshire Police have become the first in the world to introduce high-tech equipment that will help to point the finger at more criminals.
Bedfordshire Police have become the first in the world to introduce high-tech equipment that will help to point the finger at more criminals.
The forces Fingerprint Bureau has just taken delivery of a new Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) which is aimed at generating more rapid results and improving detections.
Developed in conjunction with the French company Sagem Defense Securite, it is capable of supporting a database containing the fingerprints of more than 50,000 individuals and 10,000 unidentified finger or palm prints found at crime scenes.
A major benefit is the systems full mobility, meaning real-time fingerprint matches can be made at crime scenes using equipment including a lap-top and flatbed scanner. Files can be later transferred into the main system.
Head of Scientific Services Dick Johnson said the equipment compliments existing nationally provided technology and is another example of Bedfordshires commitment to intelligence-led policing.
The technology will assist with everything from major incidents, specialist police operations and mass elimination tasks and we predict it will be watched with interest by forces in this country and abroad.
He added: The partnership work between Bedfordshire Police and Sagem has delivered a product with major potential for the future of fingerprints on an international level. Intelligence-led policing is very much part of day-to-day operations and Bedfordshires Scientific Services is now poised to support this in a more dynamic fashion.
At the moment, the process of retrieval is time consuming with information being sent to a bureau normally situated at HQ. The new capability means the process runs in the opposite direction.
We now have a database containing thousands of stored prints, available to access on the frontline. It allows CSIs to lift and search not wirelessly, but at a crime scene instantaneously.
It provides forensic intelligence to frontline officers, allowing the automatic searching of complicated algorithms on an experts laptop. The technology allows forensic experts to work in areas where it has previously not though to be possible.