Clarksburg, West Virginia – As the FBI celebrates 100 years of success at its Fingerprint Lab (formerly known as the Biometric Services Division), leaders are looking to a future where advances in science and technology will expand law enforcement capabilities.
Fingerprints can now be taken in the field with a small attachment to an investigator’s cell phone, millions of palm prints have been added to fingerprint databases, and facial recognition technology is helping investigators identify suspects.
But a new and effective option — iris scanning — is fast, accurate, and reduces the safety risks faced by officers stopping potential violent criminals. It’s one of the most important next-generation tools the FBI has developed, and we hope more states will adopt it.
“The iris has the ability to achieve nearly the same level of identification accuracy through iris imaging, and the only thing currently preventing further use of the iris for optical fingerprinting is the size of the repository,” said Brian Griffith, assistant deputy director in charge of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Laboratory in West Virginia.
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Iris scanning can be done on a mobile device from up to three feet away, takes two seconds, and returns results in under eight seconds. (iStock)
According to authorities, there are 162 million fingerprint sets, but only 4 million iris sets.
“Iris is going to be a game changer,” he said.
But fingerprints and other biometrics will likely still play an important role in forensic science, because suspects often don’t leave the scene of a crime, said FBI historian John Fox.
FBI officials demonstrated the technology at an event Wednesday at the CJIS facility in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
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Criminals have been trying to hide their identities by altering fingerprints for decades, but now agents at the FBI’s CJIS division can easily identify suspects even if their fingerprints have been altered. (Michael Lewis/Fox News Digital)
So far, one of the most practical uses of the system has been in state prisons and jails, said Amy Brasher, deputy chief of CJIS.
“We do iris scans upon arrest, and then when we release or transfer that inmate, we take a photo of their iris and check their vault,” she said, “and you wouldn’t believe how many inmates we have that were on the verge of being released. [are] It’s not the same person. This is one of the best use cases we see.”
Iris scanning software can also reject readings from prosthetic eyes or cosmetic contact lenses that hide the actual iris, preventing false data from making it into the database.
The state-of-the-art scanners can examine irises from 36 inches away, meaning officers can do it on a handcuffed suspect, or without physical contact. The scan takes two seconds, with results returned in just eight. And the iris record is automatically linked to the fingerprint record once it’s entered into the FBI’s repository.
A sign for the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services division on a nearly 1,000-acre site in Clarksburg, West Virginia. (Michael Lewis/Fox News Digital)
According to the FBI, each pupil is different and can be different between identical twins or on each side of the same person’s face. The pupil has about 240 distinguishing points that remain constant throughout a person’s life, and a computer image of the iris requires just 1 kilobyte of storage space.
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Other uses for iris technology include identifying deceased victims, instant background checks, and as a way to prevent the mistaken release of prisoners in custody. Law enforcement officers on the scene could potentially have a subject’s criminal history (including potential immigration violations) immediately available after being scanned.
Launched nearly four years ago, the tool is already being used by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, but only six states have adopted it so far.
Al Capone’s mugshot and fingerprints, framed display provided by the FBI. The FBI’s Biometric Services division was established 100 years ago to form a central database of criminal information, including fingerprints, and has continued to evolve with advances in science and technology. (Michael Lewis/Fox News Digital)
The delay is partly due to a lack of awareness and partly due to the cost of the equipment: Prices for iris scanners vary depending on size and features, but range from about $190 for a mobile device that connects to a cell phone to about $1,300 for a more powerful unit.
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Privacy concerns could also be a factor in the delay, said Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant and cold case investigator who is now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
These devices connect to a smartphone and can collect and instantly upload biometric data. The iris scanner on the left comes with light-blocking goggles that allow it to record the iris in the field without interference from sunlight or other light sources. Advanced devices can scan the iris from up to three feet away. (Michael Lewis/Fox News)
“This is part of the FBI’s NGI (Next Generation Identification) and shows that the future is here,” he told Fox News Digital. “Like any new technology, it will need scrutiny from privacy advocates and the courts before it is widely used or accepted.”
Griffiths acknowledged that some criticism of the program raises privacy concerns, but said the FBI is being careful to protect Americans’ civil rights while embracing new technology.
Iris scanners use “near-infrared” light to track the pattern of colored rings around a person’s pupils. (FBI)
“As Iris grows, the same questions that have arisen around facial recognition will arise,” he said. “Certainly being able to collect irises from a distance raises a lot of privacy questions, but we wrap all of this technology in very strict policies to ensure civil liberties are always protected.”
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Giacalone predicted the FBI would eventually overcome these concerns, benefiting law enforcement agencies across the country.
“This will become part of mainstream investigative methodology, but it’s going to take time,” Giacalone said. “They’re still wrestling with facial recognition technology, so it’s not going to happen overnight.”
A century ago, fingerprints were collected on paper with ink. Then the early handheld digital devices weighed 25 pounds and had to be carried in a backpack. Now, investigators can collect and upload fingerprints in the field using anything smaller than the palm of their hand.
The BSS celebrated its 100th anniversary on Wednesday, when FBI Director Christopher Wray visited the CJIS lab in West Virginia to praise the work done there and credit it with solving some of the biggest criminal cases that have rocked the country, including the Washington shootings that terrorized the nation’s capital for three weeks in 2002.
FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC, USA, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Griffith called the CJIS lab the “tip of the spear” for the FBI and law enforcement, and officials said the division plays a role in virtually every major criminal case in the country.
The FBI also demonstrated several technologies that FBI agents use to assist law enforcement agencies across the country.
A handheld fingerprint scanner the size of a watch face that plugs into a cell phone was used to identify four of the six victims of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, in March.
Palm fingerprinting has been used to thwart criminals who are smart enough not to leave fingerprints, but who are not so smart as to peer through a window before breaking in and leaving evidence.
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Even criminals who try to alter fingerprints by cutting open the tip of a finger and stitching it back in a different pattern can be identified by expert analysts, and computer algorithms help investigators sort through vast databases of images to extract a few likely matches before a human makes the final decision.
The FBI hopes more agencies will take advantage of its expanding toolkit.
“[The issue] “Awareness of services is certainly important,” Griffiths said, “but we also need to understand what’s going on in law enforcement right now. Law enforcement personnel are down, workload is up. There’s more activity on the streets. They need something that’s easily accessible. We need to make sure our services are always offered to them in the easiest and most desirable way.”
