Lockheed Martin revamps FBI's Next Generation Identification program

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Next Generation Identification program, which will bring a web-based platform to its wanted persons database, has begun development.

The project, led by defense giant Lockheed Martin, aims to improve how law enforcement officials search an FBI wanted persons database.

With a successful "critical design review" for the system's second phase -- "Repository for Individuals of Special Concern" -- already in place, a Lockheed team is beginning design work to improve the database's latent fingerprint matching accuracy, as well as add palm prints for reference.

"This capability gives law enforcement users more speed and flexibility in how they search the RISC fingerprint database," said Lockheed Martin NGI program director Mike Moore in a statement. "For the first time, the law enforcement community can use web-based transactions, in addition to the existing data input mechanisms, to determine whether a suspect is a wanted person within RISC."

The team is also working to make the platform flexible to accommodate more biometric modalities in the future.

The RISC fingerprint database, which is managed by the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services division, includes wanted persons, known or suspected terrorists, sex offenders and other persons of special interest.

The program's first phase, the delivery of 800 new workstations to replace aging systems (see photo above), was completed earlier this year.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com