Criminal Identification is the use of biometric technologies to identify or verify the identity of a suspect, detainee, or individual in a law enforcement application. The primary role of the biometric is to identify an individual in order to conduct law enforcement functions.
Criminal Identification was the first widespread use of biometric technology, deployed for decades in non-automated applications. Conducting fingerprint searches against local, state, and national databases, as well as automated processing of mug shots, are typical Criminal Identification applications.