U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Arizona Fingerprint Identification Project - An Evaluation

NCJ Number
85982
Date Published
1977
Length
61 pages
Annotation
This report investigates the costs and potential cost effectiveness and accuracy of an automated fingerprint identification system, citing the experiences of agencies that have automated their identification systems. It focuses on Arizona's automated system.
Abstract
The report describes the development of Arizona's system and its equipment, processes (bulk load, ongoing searches, computer modes), and interfaces. It notes system measures for determining card quality, methods of searching the file, and ways to determine manual and automated system accuracy. Other evaluative considerations focus on system sizing and possible system improvements (in data input, processing, and verification). An interactive computerized cost model is developed to compare future identification bureau costs incurred with and without incorporation of the computerized search system. Findings indicate that Arizona's system is capable of performing technical searches and is less costly than the manual procedure it replaced. Tabular data are included.