The Zero Hour

The FBI’s Identification Division has the fingerprints of some twenty-four million convicted criminals on line, in addition to the print file cards of forty million other Americans, including federal employees and military veterans. And very recently, the FBI’s AFIS has been electronically connected to AFIS machines at state capitals and major cities around the country. This network, the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), which is housed in a new site in Clarksburg, West Virginia, ties the local police booking station to the FBI in a paperless transmission system that will soon eliminate the old-fashioned fingerprint cards entirely.

***

The task force had been hastily assembled by beeper. Even Ken Alton, awakened from slumber, straggled in clutching a take-out cup of coffee. Sarah passed out copies of Henrik Baumann’s “ten-print,” his ten fingerprints compiled on a file card by the South Africans. On this form, each print was carefully rolled onto its own block. On the lower portion of the card were the “slap prints,” the four fingers of each hand slapped down at once.

“You may not have any use for the prints,” she announced, “but it’s there in case you do. Those numbers there beneath each print are the Henry numbers, which the South Africans still use. Stone-age technology, but we’re not in a position to complain. The Identification Division is already working on these, blowing them up, tracing the ridges, and converting them to the AFIS system.”

“What, no lip prints?” asked Lieutenant Roth dryly.

There were a few chuckles, some louder than others, as if this were an inside joke.

“Sorry?” Sarah said, mystified.

“It’s a running joke,” explained Wayne Kim from NYPD Forensics, shaking his head. “There’ve been a couple of papers in the Journal of Forensic Science on using lip prints for personal identification. They look at labial wrinkles and grooves, bifurcated, trifurcated, reticulate, stuff like that.”

“I see,” she said. “Now, a couple of things about these prints you may or may not know, since I know you’re not all fingerprint jocks. Until we get the AFIS classifications, you can fax these ten-prints or receive latents by fax, but make sure to use not just the high-resolution fax, but the secure high-resolution fax, okay? And be careful, because even the high-res fax can introduce false minutiae. If you get a set of latents you think might be from our guy, I’d rather courier them down to Washington than mess around with the fax.”

“Sarah,” Ken said groggily, “what’s the deal on reliability of AFIS matches?”

“Okay, the machine classifies the quality of the prints A or B. C is a reject. It doesn’t give you a definite yes-or-no, this-is-it kind of thing. It’ll give you a list of the top contenders in descending order by PCN number. A so-called perfect score is nineteen thousand, nine hundred ninety-eight. But remember, we’re in the law-enforcement business, not the intelligence business, so everything we do has to stand up in court. And legally, even after the computer spits out the winner, ID’s still going to have to chart it by hand, or rather by eye.”

Ken nodded.

“We going to put this out on the NCIC?” asked Mark McLaughlin of the NYPD, who had sandy blond hair and a face dense with freckles.

Sarah shook her head. “NCIC uses a different system, a simple numerical classification the Bureau came up with in order to be able to store prints on computer. It’s based on a line count of ridges between the delta and the core-you know, ‘center loop, outside tracing,’ or ‘radial loop with a four count,’ like that. It’s actually a pretty crude system, useful for pointing the way and that’s all. AFIS and IAFIS are really a hell of a lot more useful.”

“And Albany, too, since we’re assuming the guy’s right here,” Lieutenant Roth said. “The Division of Criminal Justice, Fingerprints Section. So if he’s arrested and printed anywhere in the state, we’ve got him. I say it’s worth the time to send prints on to every state to search for a match, and retain them if they’re willing to. New York will, but a lot of states won’t.”

“So what do you want us to do with prints if we get any?” asked one of the street agents, Dennis Stewart, whose specialty was organized crime.

“We’ve got some basic equipment set up here,” she replied. “A RAMCAM, the little fingerprint reader that makes a thermal picture of the print, and the CRIMCON, which is hooked up to a video monitor. Lieutenant Roth is the man to see if you have a print-he’ll be in charge of all that.”

Later, as the group dispersed, Pappas approached her and spoke quietly. “Listen, Sarah, with all this sophisticated technology, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that all the fancy computers in the world aren’t going to make up for some good solid shoeleather.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m just afraid that the clock’s ticking and we’re being sidetracked by all these toys.”

“Alex, we ignore the new technology at our own peril.”