Australia Crimtrac

In the late 1980s the Australian government implemented a National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), but by the late 1990s the system had run out of capacity. To take full advantage of advances in biometric technology over the previous decade. It would require a complete system upgrade. Accordingly, in mid-2000 the Australian Government established CrimTrac, a national crime agency with a mandate to develop the four key information systems: a National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), a national criminal DNA database, a national child sex offender system and rapid access to the national operational policing data (Crimtrac Police Reference System – CPRS).

Large Scale Conversion Operation

After soliciting competitive bids, CrimTrac selected SAGEM to design, implement and maintain the NAFIS. Initially, SAGEM had to convert the existing paper fingerprint forms and unsolved latent records (alphanumeric data and minutiae maps) retrieved from the existing NEC system. The conversion of paper forms was performed at SAGEM Morpho conversion headquarters in Tacoma, Washington. Between March of 2000 and February of 2001 almost 2.5 million tenprint cards and 202,000 unsolved latent records were electronically converted.

Integrated fingerprint/palmprint identification

The SAGEM MetaMorpho NAFIS became operational on April, 2001 and included a number of features that added significantly to the crime-solving capabilities of State and Territory Police Agencies. The new MetaMorpho NAFIS captured finger and palmprint images at 256 levels of gray (the earlier system was binary, black/white, no shades of gray), thereby preserving the shades that might aid the fingerprint expert in making an identity. The new system has enabled the integration of SAGEM Livescan capture stations from 151 individual sites nationally, all connected to a central database of 2.8 million fingerprint records and 5.6 million palm impressions – as well as 240,000 latent prints recovered from crime scenes. The CrimTrac NAFIS holds the largest automated palmprint database in the world. As 25% to 30% of crime scene latents are palmprints, their addition to the CrimTrac NAFIS significantly increased the number of crimes solved by police forces.

Performance Exceeding Expectation

To keep up with a NAFIS throughput that significantly exceeded expectations, early in 2003 CrimTrac awarded SAGEM a contract to upgrade the NAFIS. An Australian Government audit report on the NAFIS upgrade indicates that “ . . . the upgrade was required due to greater usage than was envisaged, arising from the increased speed and ease of use.” The heavy usage of the upgraded NAFIS by police agencies is confirmed by its monthly throughput figures: an average of 12,500 crime scene latent searches (i.e., 11,000 fingerprints and 1,500 palmprints), with approximately 10% leading to an identificationThe CrimTrac NAFIS training and test environment was also a big help to Indonesian and Australian Government for the identification of the victims of the Bali bombing.SAGEM’s initial implementation and subsequent upgrade of the NAFIS was a significant accomplishment both technically and geographically. Implementing the largest integrated finger and palmprint system across an entire continent and then upgrading it with minimum downtime had never been done before. A CrimTrac evaluation of the NAFIS states that “The accuracy of the MetaMorpho searching algorithms, the ease of use of the system and the new functionality provided to the end user have all contributed to the acknowledged success of the CrimTrac NAFIS.” The CrimTrac NAFIS has become an advertisement for the integrated fingerprint/palmprint AFIS that every police agency worldwide would like to have.