Latent Print Certification Board

Applicants for Latent Print Certification

The following individuals have applied for latent print certifica

Anyone wishing to comment on any of the applicants should contac

Secretary of the Latent Print Certification B’oard as soon as pos

Address comments to Wi!liam W. Willis, Secretary, Latent Print C

fication Board, 2200 S. Halley’s, Olathe, KS 66062.

Hatcher, Mark T. #93-04 Small, Mitchell

Phoenix Police Dept. Phoenix Police Dept.

Phoenix, AZ Phoenix. AZ

Hawthorne, Mark #93-05 Swanson, Richard

San Francisco Police Dept. Colorado B of I

San Francisco, CA Pueblo, CO

May, Jeffery M. #93-03

Wi\con\in State Crime Lab

Milwaukee, WI

Latent Print Certification Board

Vacancies

#9

#9

The terms of two members of the IAI Latent Print Certification B

will expire as of the 1993 Annual Educational Conference to be he

Orlando, Florida. Any Certified Latent Print Examiner intereste

being considered for appointment to the Board should submit a lett

interest along with a resume to the Secretary of the Board.

Applications must be received by June 15, 1993, to be conside

Applicant must hold current certification. Ad&-eSS applications or 

quiries to the following:

William W. Willis

Secretary, LPCB

2200 S. Halley’s

Olathe, KS 66062

J. Forensic Ident.

280 /43 (3), 1993

 
ent parts of the algorithm, details of the encoder and decoder, the 

required interchange formats, and compliance issues. Based on the 

document and the talks presented, attendees were requested to return 

comments and suggestions to Tom Hopper at the FBI by January 10, 

1993. This information will be used to update the specification to 

Revision 2.0. This update is scheduled for completion by February 10, 

1993. 

Issues regarding algorithm speed and compliance were addressed. 

In addition to the FBI, a private organization and a university are 

reported to have developed software implementations of the WSQ algorithm. It was agreed that in order to significantly reduce the amount 

of processing time required, parallel processing techniques may be 

required at major installations. As additional software and hardware 

implementations of the algorithm are developed, they will have to be 

validated as complying with the WSQ technical specification. The 

compliance effort will require reference encoders and decoders for the 

algorithm. Tom Hopper suggested that NIST and the U.K. Home Office should consider developing such tools and collaborate on their 

validation. 

The next topic of discussion at this review meeting dealt with image 

quality and card conversion. A major project under development at the 

FBI is the scanning and conversion of the fingerprint card file to electronic images. Although image compression will be a separate step 

after scanning, the completion of the WSQ algorithm will be necessary 

for the success of this effort. One of the goals of the WSQ framework 

is to provide flexibility for future improvements to the algorithm. In 

order to take advantage of potential future refinements to the algorithm, 

or to use other compression approaches, a lossless copy of the original 

scanned data will be retained. This will allow simultaneous progress to 

be made on both the file conversion process and the refinements to the 

WSQ algorithm while maintaining a high degree of flexibility. 

The scanning to be used for this file conversion process 

must be properly chosen to ensure adequate feature comparison between images. Tom Hopper stated that the user requirements will be 

mapped to the engineering specifications of the scanner system being 

developed for file conversion. The new grayscale scanner must support 

both automatic image processing and the people who perform comparisons. 

J. Forensic Ident. 

282 /43 (3), 1993 
ent parts of the algorithm, details of the encoder and decoder, 

required interchange formats, and compliance issues. Based on 

document and the talks presented, attendees were requested to re

comments and suggestions to Tom Hopper at the FBI by January 

1993. This information will be used to update the specification 

Revision 2.0. This update is scheduled for completion by February 

1993.

Issues regarding algorithm speed and compliance were addres

In addition to the FBI, a private organization and a university 

reported to have developed software implementations of the WSQ 

gorithm. It was agreed that in order to significantly reduce the amo

of processing time required, parallel processing techniques may 

required at major installations. As additional software and hardw

implementations of the algorithm are developed, they will have to 

validated as complying with the WSQ technical specification. 

compliance effort will require reference encoders and decoders for 

algorithm. Tom Hopper suggested that NIST and the U.K. Home 

fice should consider developing such tools and collaborate on t

validation.

The next topic of discussion at this review meeting dealt with im

quality and card conversion. A major project under development at 

FBI is the scanning and conversion of the fingerprint card file to e

tronic images. Although image compression will be a separate 

after scanning, the completion of the WSQ algorithm will be necess

for the success of this effort. One of the goals of the WSQ framew

is to provide flexibility for future improvements to the algorithm

order to take advantage of potential future refinements to the algorith

or to use other compression approaches, a lossless copy of the origi

scanned data will be retained. This will allow simultaneous progres

be made on both the file conversion process and the refinements to 

WSQ algorithm while maintaining a high degree of flexibility.

The scanning re~olution to be used for this file conversion proc

must be properly chosen to ensure adequate feature comparison 

tween images. Tom Hopper stated that the user requirements will 

mapped to the engineering specifications of the scanner system be

developed for file conversion. The new grayscale scanner must supp

both automatic image processing and the people who perform comp

sons.

J. Forensic Ident.

282 /43 (3), 1993
image is displayed on the large monitor, resolution is lost. Use of the 

large display for part of the comparison process and the electronic 

loupe for other parts will give the fingerprint examiner the tools that are 

needed. 

Since the first review meeting. Dr. Winarsky different 

aspects relating to the development of this device. He contends that it 

would be quite feasible to develop this and that it could be 

comparatively inexpensive. Either an LCD or a very small CRT will be 

used in the design of this electronic loupe. The target date for a prototype of this device is the end of January, 1993. 

Submission of Juvenile Criminal 

Records 

ln a letter dated February 4. 1993, to FBI Identification Division 

and Criminal Justice Information Services users, Assistant Director G. 

Norman Christensen stated the following: 

Effective immediately. the FBI Identification (ID) will accept, maintain, and disseminate arrest fingerprint cards for juveniles 

who have been tried or otherwise adjudicated in juvenile proceedings. 

This change results from amendment of Title 28, Code of Federal 

Regulations, $20.32, which previously prohibited collection ofjuvenile 

records. Prior to the amendment. juvenile records were accepted by the 

ID only when the had been adjudicated as adults. The ID will 

now accept records of juveniles adjudicated in juvenile courts. Each 

state now has the responsibility of determining whether its own laws 

permit submission of pertaining to persons adjudicated as juveProgramming is currently underway to implement a capacity 

for ID which will enable a submitting agency to control the 

breadth of dissemination of a particular record. Until the sealing capability implemented, juvenile records will be maintained and 

inated in the same manner as adult Juvenile fingerprint 

submissions should be made only if dissemination is permitted by state 

J. Forensic Ident. 

284 /43 (3), 1993