KINGSTON, Jamaica—  The upgrading of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Automated Palm and Fingerprint Identification System is in progress and is scheduled to come on stream in September.

Senior Director in the Major Technology Transformation Branch at the Ministry of National Security, Arvel Grant, said the Automated Palm and Fingerprint System serves the JCF as a forensic tool as well as a resource to provide information on criminal record history.

Grant said the upgrade is “bringing more efficiency to the process of generating criminal records”.

Automated palm and fingerprint identification systems are primarily used by law-enforcement agencies for criminal identification purposes, the most important of which is the identification of a person suspected of committing a crime or linking a suspect to other unsolved crimes.

“When you go to the Criminal Records Office to get your police report, really this is the system that helps the officers to produce those records.

“These police records are required for certain purposes, for job prospects, travel, et cetera, so we are making that process more efficient, removing all the dated equipment, upgrading the equipment, implementing new algorithms to make the system more efficient and that is coming on stream September this year,” he shared.

A police record is an essential piece of document that is used to verify whether a person has ever been legally accused of or convicted for a crime. Employers and organisations usually request a police record in order to get background information on applicants and prospective employees.

The Automated Palm and Fingerprint Identification System was first put into operation in October 2006.