U.S. Embassy Announces Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Digital Fingerprint Information Program in Suriname

11-30-2012

Steve Nash, Head of the Technical Team shows U.S. Ambassador Jay Anania the manual fingerprint cards to be digitized

The U.S. Embassy is pleased to announce the start of a fingerprint digitization project conducted in cooperation with the Government of Suriname. A team of technical experts are visiting Suriname November 26 through December 6 to start the first phase of the project which when completed will make up a comprehensive database of criminal biographical data. The database will give Suriname law enforcement the capability to collect, store, and analyze digital fingerprint information. 

Fingerprint identification is one of the most accurate ways to verify a person’s identity because they are unique and do not change significantly over an individual’s lifetime.   Furthermore, fingerprint identification is more reliable than other identification documentation a person may possess and is widely used by government, law enforcement, and the private sector for positive verification of identity.  

The capability to collect, store, and analyze digital fingerprints will provide Suriname law enforcement a comprehensive tool to facilitate the positive identification of individuals arrested or detained for cause.  The ability to collect, store, and analyze digital fingerprint images significantly improves Suriname’s capability to combat transnational crime, terrorist transit, and serious immigration violations, such as human smuggling and human trafficking. 

The U.S. government will convert existing fingerprint images, both paper and digital, to digital images following the accepted international formats for the collection, storage, and analysis of digital fingerprint information.

Suriname is one of several Caribbean nations participating in this regional program. The ultimate goal of the digital fingerprint program is the ability to store digital fingerprint information from many countries in one database and for the ability of all the contributing countries to query this data base and work together to combat transnational crime.

The U.S. Embassy plans future visits to conduct a comprehensive training program on the database.