On Monday evening the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) CEO Michael Phelan signed an agreement with IDEMIA to enhance the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) at the Australian High Commission in Paris, France.
NAFIS is the current national capability that provides Australian law enforcement agencies with the critical fingerprint matching capability to support law enforcement operations at all levels. CEO Michael Phelan said it is the only national fingerprint and palmprint capability in Australia.
“This new agreement with IDEMIA will benefit law enforcement agencies across the states, territories and Commonwealth.
“It will continue, and enhance, the provision of a critical national law enforcement system.
“NAFIS NextGen will allow the ACIC to deliver an upgraded, fully supported system, with protected Government cloud capability, advanced latent fingerprint processing and integration with partner agency systems,” he said.
“This will allow law enforcement agencies across Australia to use our biometric services to help solve crime and keep our community safe.”
Australian law enforcement uses NAFIS to identify individuals from their fingerprints or palm prints. The system helps to solve crimes by matching crime scene evidence to persons of interest. It enables near real-time uploads of prints from crime scenes, helping police to identify suspects in minutes.
The system is searched on average 4,245 times every day by Australian law enforcement agencies. While the majority of identifications are for volume crime, such as unlawful entries to homes and thefts of cars, the system also assists police identify suspects for more serious crimes such as murder, rape and armed robbery.
