Suffolk County Legislature’s approval announced
 
(Hauppauge, NY) Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Edward Webber announce the Suffolk County Legislature’s approval of a resolution to upgrade the county’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).
 
The upgrade will allow for faster, more accurate searches of prints and will assist police officers and detectives in solving cases. In the past, investigating officers would need to identify a person of interest in order to perform a palm print search. With the approved upgrade to the AFIS system, investigators who have recovered a palm print from a crime scene can now search nationwide databases to see if there is a match without having a suspect. 
 
It has been more than a decade since the department’s AFIS system has been upgraded. This upgraded technology will allow latent prints submitted as evidence from crime scenes, approximately 30% of which are palm prints, to be checked against existing databases that contain more than 3 million fingerprints and more than 200,000 palm prints of arrestees.
 
“Providing our law enforcement agencies with the proper investigative tools is essential to keep Suffolk County residents safe,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. “Investigators will now be able to identify suspects more rapidly using this upgraded system.”
 
“This technological upgrade is imperative to investigating officers in the department,” said Acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Edward Webber. “Palm print searches will enable us to solve cases we would previously have been unable to close.”