With its Joint Automated Booking System, the Justice Department has hit 'a significant milestone' in a plan to set up a nationwide, cross-agency database of arrest information, according to Linda Burek, the department's deputy assistant attorney general for information resources.
With its Joint Automated Booking System, the Justice Department has hit
"a significant milestone" in a plan to set up a nationwide, cross-agency
database of arrest information, according to Linda Burek, the department's
deputy assistant attorney general for information resources.
"We feel good that it is in production. We're doing bookings and getting
a nice turnaround" on information, she said.
Currently, the Drug Enforcement Administration bureaus in Florida are
the only groups filing arrest data with JABS, where the DEA has launched
it as a test program.
With JABS, she said, fingerprint identification that typically took
six to eight weeks to process can now be turned around within two hours.
In some cases, officials got a positive ID in 30 minutes, she said.
Field agents transmit arrest information from the local level to the JABS
repository, which forwards it to the FBI's integrated automated fingerprint
identification system for a match against those on file.
The JABS database eventually will include mug shots and other identifying
information, said Brian McGrath, JABS program manager. Ultimately, Justice
would like to have federal officers be able to access the data via handheld
computers, putting information immediately into the hands of field agents.
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