King County, Washington: AFIS Costs and Benefiets

Voters could decide $118.9 million county levy for fingerprint services (Issaquah Press)

King County voters could decide on a $118.9 million property tax levy to continue funding criminal fingerprint identification services for local law enforcement agencies.

The proposal is to keep the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS, in operation through 2018. The system provides criminal fingerprint identification services to law enforcement agencies throughout the county, including the Issaquah Police Department.

The proposed renewal levy rate is 5.92 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, or about $20.72 per year for a $350,000 home. Voters approved the initial AFIS levy in 1986, and overwhelmingly renewed the levy since then, most recently in 2006. The current levy expires in December.

“As a regional crime-fighting tool, AFIS is our ‘CSI: King County,’ bringing new technology to the job of cracking cases and catching criminals,” County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement.

Read the whole thing. There are numbers to indicate that the system is getting cheaper to administer over time. There are other indicators that even as the system is costing less, its capabilities are expanding.

King County contains Seattle (map here).

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Audit targets lax practices at Washington County (PostStar.com)

Employee payroll expenses, overtime and benefits accounted for about 42 percent of the county's $112 million spending plan in 2010.

How King County Washington Manages an Election

This one has only a narrow biometrics angle but elections worldwide have been generating a lot of interest. Here'e how the county containing Seattle does it.

The security setup is part “Mission: Impossible” and part common sense. (Issaquah Press)

King County Elections staffers travel in pairs to retrieve ballot packets from ballot drop boxes. Trucks must pass through a secure gate and a concertina-wire-topped chain-link fence to deliver completed ballots to the elections office.

Inside, electronic key cards and biometric controls to authenticate fingerprints limit access to ballots and processing areas. Crews transport returned packets in a separate elevator from the loading zone to the processing area. The building lacks wireless Internet access to limit possible information leaks. The office maintains a strict policy to require employees and guests to don color-coded lanyards to determine security clearance.