The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced a new technology designed to revolutionise law enforcement’s ability to process fingerprints. The next generation identification system (NGI), built by Lockheed Martin, delivers an incremental replacement of the FBI’s integrated automated fingerprint identification system (IAFIS). NGI provides automated fingerprint and latent search capabilities, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints to more than 18,000 law-enforcement agencies and other authorised 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. In addition to the new fingerprint identification technology, the NGI programme has also delivered advanced technology workstations to the FBI’s fingerprint examiner staff. The workstations include significantly larger display screens with higher resolution and true colour support, allowing staff to see more detailed attributes of biometric data for more efficient decision-making.