Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Law Enforcement

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Biometrics

  • 113 Accesses

Synonyms

Criminal law enforcement; Law enforcement agency; Police law enforcement

Definition

Law enforcement systems record information about individuals, both biometric data and demographic data, that is used for quickly identifying criminals and their acts.

Introduction

The identification of criminals and repeat offenders has been one of the primary missions of police agencies since their creation in the nineteenth century. The industrial revolution led to mass migration to cities where anonymity gave safe harbor to lawbreakers. Newspapers fanned both real and perceived threats to public safety and placed persistent demands upon the police to solve crimes. Laws were enacted that dealt the harshest penalties to repeat offenders encouraging lawbreakers to adopt a different name (known as an alias) with each new arrest.

Answering the call for effective systems of identification, law enforcement agencies initiated various systems to maintain records at the end of the nineteenth century....

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 899.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 549.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. The Criminal Investigative Process, Rand, R-1776-DOJ, Oct 1975

    Google Scholar 

  2. F. Galton, Finger Prints (Macmillan, London, 1892)

    Google Scholar 

  3. S. Cole, Suspect Identities (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2001)

    Google Scholar 

  4. H.C. Lee, R.E. Gaensslen, Advances in Fingerprint Technology, 2nd edn. (CRC, West Palm Beach, 2001)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & Scar Mark & Tattoo (SMT) Information (ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000)

    Google Scholar 

  6. P. Komarinski, Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  7. N. Ratha, R. Bolle, Automated Fingerprint Recognition Systems (Springer, New York, 2004)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  8. D. Maltoni et al., Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition (Springer, New York, 2003)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forensic Indentification Services, San Franscisco, CA, USA

    Ken Moses

Authors
  1. Ken Moses
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Biometrics and Security, Research & National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Stan Z. Li

  2. Departments of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Anil K. Jain

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

Moses, K. (2015). Law Enforcement. In: Li, S.Z., Jain, A.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Biometrics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7488-4_21

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation