Police to get upgraded fingerprint system
Published:Thursday | September 3, 2009 | 4:57 PM
The Jamaica government have signed a $88 million (US$990,000) agreement with a French company to upgrade the Automated Palm and Fingerprint Identification System (APFIS) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), according to a report on www.cananews.net.
National Security Minister Dwight Nelson said the six-month contract with Sagem SA of France, \"will greatly improve the capability of the Jamaica Constabulary Force to use fingerprint identification technology in solving crimes in Jamaica\".
The APFIS became operational in 2006 and Nelson said the most important feature of the upgraded APFIS would be a much larger fingerprint database for the JCF.
The system is also expected to make it easier to provide police records on individuals. Additional equipment is also to be acquired and deployed strategically within the JCF, the Department of Correctional Services and at the Firearm Licensing Authority.
He said that as part of the upgrading of the JCF fingerprint identification system, the Ministry was examining the possibility of maintaining separate databases for the fingerprints of criminals and non-criminals since storing the fingerprint of someone who has not committed an offence could raise legal questions.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Les Green, said there are nearly 300,000 fingerprints on the system with over 400 cases linked to them.