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To: steve who wrote (15654)	11/11/1999 1:09:00 PM
From: steve	Respond to of 26039

To all, "Palm Prints May Finger Crooks" Wired News Online (11/02/99); Philipkoski, Kristen NEC Technologies announced on Nov. 1 that its Automated Palmprint Identification System (APIS) is ready for use. APIS will enable law enforcers to use a high-speed computer system to compare and match palmprints found at the scene of a crime to a remote database made up of prints taken when suspects are booked. The San Francisco Police Department participated in an 18-month trial program with NEC, during which it compiled a database of 30,000 palm prints. During the trial, the database correctly matched 57 out of 80 palmprints, and listed the correct identity of the print among the top three possibilities 99 percent of the time. Michael Gaynor of the SFPD said that APIS has enabled the department to increase its crime scene identifications to 25 percent, a figure he anticipates will increase to 35 percent. Law enforcement agencies can purchase APIS for a cost of $1 million to $20 million, depending on options. Although APIS is already on sale, NEC soon will link individual departments' databases to the National Crime Information Center and the FBI, although the Federal agency has no current plans to use APIS itself. Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center acknowledged that APIS could be a boon to law enforcers, but cautioned that governments must take care not to misuse the technology. nlectc.org steve