After an evaluation of international crime detection technologies in the market, the PNP has adopted NEC's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), which is acknowledged as one of the world's most efficient among the category of computerized solutions.
Biometrics is the revolutionary technology now widely used for both civilian and criminal identification security systems and crime detection work. It authenticates unique body demographics such as fingerprint, and enables an almost instantaneous identification.
AFIS was operationalized in February 2005 following the laborious task of building an initial data base of 210,000 fingerprints.
The PNP Crime Laboratory attributes the early resolution of several cases resulting from the use of AFIS. This includes the identification and arrest last year of the elusive "Pajero Lady" whose real name is Ma. Lourdes de Guzman - long wanted for a string of robbery cases whose victims were mostly government and military officials.
Two weeks ago, the PNP Crime Laboratory used AFIS and promptly identified two "chop-chop" victims whose mutilated body parts were dumped in separate places in Quezon City and Muntinlupa. The laboratory ran the fingerprints in their database and quickly ascertained the identities of the two apparent victims of summary execution.
Supt. Lyndon Cubos, head of the AFIS unit at the PNP Crime Laboratory, believes AFIS will reach its full potential in the next five years when the data base is made more complete and the system is adopted nationwide.
"There are so many benefits that can be derived from the NEC fingerprint technology which should help the PNP in speeding up crime resolution and in minimizing the backlog of unresolved cases," he said.
Cubos pointed out that AFIS is very effective in robbery cases where the suspects are able to flee the crime scene but not without leaving some physical evidence like fingerprints.
NEC Philippines executive vice president Leonardo Santos is pleased that the addition of AFIS into the PNP's technological arsenal has produced very satisfactory results.
"Our company will continuously strive to provide the best computerized solutions that will help the national police boost its crime fighting capability especially in the crime laboratory," he said.
AFIS is a turnkey computerized solution developed by NEC of Japan that captures, matches or compares, identifies, verifies, and stores digitized fingerprints.
In 2003, AFIS bested 18 companies that joined Fingerprint Vendor Technology Evaluation 2003 (FpVTE2003) and emerged as world champion in matching accuracy. FpVT2003 is an accuracy evaluation of fingerprint matching, identification and verification systems conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US.
"In single finger print tests, NEC was the most accurate system (or tied for most accurate) in 42 out of 44 distinct combinations of data, including tests of mixed image type and those from a variety of operational and controlled sources," the evaluation report said.
It was in 1969 that NEC started developing an AFIS system for Japan's National Police Agency by studying its manual method. More than a decade later, in 1982, NEC implemented a fully working AFIS. Before the computer revolution, fingerprints were compared manually by fingerprint experts.
Cubos said the PNP had been using this manual scheme prior to the introduction of AFIS in 2004. The manual process was tedious since comparison of fingerprints taken from the scene of the crime with those in the files had to be done one by one.
"We're fortunate that the Japanese government was kind enough to extend the PNP a grant that would revolutionize the way we use fingerprints in criminal work," he added.
In 2003, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) released a 975-million yen grant to upgrade the fingerprint system used by the PNP. The bidding was eventually won by Marubeni Corp. and the system chosen was NEC's AFIS.
The PNP is currently using NEC's latest offering - AFIS 21 - an open systems based product envisioned to address the 21st century's identification needs, including both criminal and non-criminal environments. Among its salient features are:
· Automatic pattern classification
· Automatic feature extraction
· Full latent image enhancement tool called LEXS
· Candidate list generation and dynamic threshold
· Computer-assisted verification for hit/non-hit notification
· Complete fingerprint database storage
Cubos noted that the AFIS can also be valuable in disaster recovery and relief operations such as identifying victims of floods and earthquakes as well as those involved in maritime and air transport accidents.
