AFIS fingerprinting system now in Fla.

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, around 3,000 people are arrested every day in Florida. To help investigators solve crimes, the department has upgraded it's automated fingerprint identification system that it has used for 14 years.

The AFIS is now "AFIS-BIS", which stands for Biometric Identification System.

"The system is built for identification for unknown subjects. When crimes happen and they have fingerprints they collected at a crime scene without any subjects at all, we can take that latent print and enter it into the AFIS system and run a search on it. If the individual has a record in the past, it will make a hit on it and then we'll have identification of the individual that was involved in that crime," said Crime Lab Analyst Supervisor Don Pribbenow.

Here's how the system works:

First, a print has to be left behind for law enforcement to begin the process. Investigators powder the print, then lift it with tape. The fingerprint is taken back to be evaluated by AFIS.

"We enter a case number, and it creates the case. We then capture the latent, and we have two methods of capturing. We can with capture it with a camera or a scanner," said Rachel Smith, FDLE.

The image is saved in the computer, and details of the print are analyzed and compared with other prints already in the system.

The system also enables FDLE to retain mug shots and images of offenders, tattoos, scars, and other distinguishable marks.

The improved AFIS system can also analyze palm prints, which is new for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"Before we couldn't do anything with those. If they didn't have a suspect we didn't have anything further that we could do, where as now we have this investigative tools to search, and if a hit is obtained, then we can research that person and see if it's possible they were the likely subject in the case," said Smith.

The AFIS database has the names of everyone with an arrest record in Florida, which is almost five million people.

The system can also search nationwide.

Since the system was introduced, the number of fingerprints matched to suspects has tripled.