Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. The availability and readiness of technology to identify a person on the basis of fingerprints held in the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II)

Summary:

It is becoming increasingly difficult to establish the identity of a person due to changing names and the use of aliases or fraudulent documents. The use of document fraud is an increasing modus operandi to illegally enter and move around within the Schengen area. Document fraudsters not only undermine border security but also the internal security of the EU. Often persons, sought by the police, are evasive about their identity and use multiple aliases. Some persons subject of an entry ban to the Schengen area can legally change their identity in their country of origin to avoid detection. In this context, a reliable method to establish identity is needed. The use of fingerprints would be an efficient way for both border guards and law enforcement officials to identify persons sought by the authorities and to detect cases of document fraud.

The second generation Schengen Information System (SIS) entered into operation on 9 April 2013. A new feature is the storage of fingerprints in the central system. At present, prints are used to confirm the identity of a person located as a result of a search, usually on name and date of birth. This is a “one-to-one” search - the person’s prints are compared to one set of prints stored in SIS. However the possibility to identify a person on the basis of his/her fingerprints requires an evolution to the present law enforcement practice: the comparison of a person’s prints to all sets of prints – a “one-to-many” search – to identify the person solely on the basis of fingerprints. This functionality requires the implementation of an Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).