Technology and Communication in Criminal Justice

Technology affects our everyday life. Technology also affects the criminal justice field, especially in communication. The criminal justice system has different databases thanks to technology. These databases do things that humans wouldn’t be able to do or wouldn’t have the time to do. Two specific types of databases are AFIS and Iris scan. AFIS (also known as IAFIS) stands for Automated Fingerprint Identification System. AFIS is just that, a database created to keep track of fingerprints. Iris scan is the scanning of the iris as a method to identify people based on unique patterns within the ring-shaped region surrounding the pupil of the eye. Even though we use technology every day it can also have its drawbacks. Technological advancements will always come with positives and negatives. A positive is that technology makes life easier for everyone who works in the criminal justice field. A negative would be if a form of technology breaks down or there isn’t any electricity to keep it up and running.
AFIS is one of the most important and commonly used databases available to officers. This special database searches the fingerprints of over 74 million subjects in the National Criminal History Record File. AFIS is a system that compares fingerprints. It isn 't precise enough to make a final determination on a case but what it does do is cut out all of the people whose fingerprints don 't compare very closely to the initial fingerprint at hand. This is a huge asset to the criminal justice system because it 's probably close to impossible for an officer to sit and compare a million different fingerprints to one single one without the probability of overlooking the correct fingerprint. As humans we are more open to errors where as databases are more reliable with the information they give out. The AFI system comes up with a short list of candidates and the officers can compare that short list instead of 74 million other fingerprints.
Another very important and