Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: Palm prints are the latest biometric implemented in the FBI’s deployment of its Next Generation Identification Program, or NGI.

David Cuthbertson: Adding different biometric modalities gives us a greater chance at solving crimes.

Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern, and this is FBI, This Week. The National Palm Print System, or NPPS, is a national repository where palm print data taken from arrests can be stored. Authorized users can run those prints against unknown latent prints recovered from crime scenes. Assistant Director of the Criminal Justice Information Services Division David Cuthbertson says it expands law enforcement’s investigative capabilities.

Cuthbertson: About a third of crime scene fingerprints are actually palm prints. So, now we have the ability to search those on a national basis.

Halpern: Nearly half the states currently have the ability to enroll and participate in NPPS.

Cuthbertson: NGI benefits everyone in law enforcement, from the local police department all the way to the intelligence community.

Halpern: For more information, visit www.fbi.gov