CJIS Executive Briefs Congress on Next Generation Identification Initiative

CJIS Executive Briefs Congress on Next Generation Identification Initiative

Jerome Pender, deputy assistant director of our Criminal Justice Information Services Division, updated members of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law on the status of the Bureau’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) program. NGI, according to Pender, was created in response to advances in technology, FBI customer requirements, and growing demand for Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) services. NGI, which is 60 percent deployed, is improving the major features of the current IAFIS, including system flexibility, storage capacity, interoperability with other systems, and accuracy and timeliness of responses.

The program, Pender told subcommittee members, is being deployed in increments, and one of those increments currently in progress includes a new facial recognition system, which began earlier this year as a pilot program and is scheduled for full operational capability in 2014. Pender said that the goal of the pilot program is to test the facial recognition processes, resolve policy and processing issues, address user concerns, and in particular, address privacy protection procedures. Addressing the appropriate use of NGI facial recognition technology, he said that searches of the national repository of mug shots are subject to all rules regarding access to FBI CJIS systems information and are also subject to dissemination rules for authorized criminal justice agencies.

Read full testimony