On June 16, 2008, the New York State, Department of Criminal Justice Services, released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Statewide Automated Biometric Identification System (SABIS). The goal of the new SABIS system is to replace the existing Statewide Automated Fingerprint Identification System (SAFIS), which is contracted through Sagem Morpho Inc.

DCJS released a Request for Information (RFI) in December of 2006 for information on replacing the current SAFIS which is used, in conjunction with other systems, to process ten print identification and latent print identification transactions. DCJS also requested information on additional biometrics to be used in a multimodal (palm, facial recognition, etc.) system. Interoperability with international, federal, state, and local automated biometric identification systems is a large requirement for the new SABIS.

DCJS envisions that the new SABIS will include, but not be limited to, such features as:

• Superior encoding and matching accuracy;
• Faster, more real time identification processing;
• Automated quality assurance checks that can operate efficiently with or without human intervention;
• Tailored and flexible workflows to meet the mission critical and changing business needs of DCJS, and to reduce dependency on the vendor for workflow changes;
• Palm Latent to palm print and palm print to palm latent processing;
• No single point of failure;
• A statistical reporting system; and
• A scalable design to allow for future growth and addition of other biometric identification systems.

INPUT estimates this project to potentially reach a value of $24 million. The FY 2009 State budget included $24 million of funding for fingerprint identification and technology. INPUT expects this contract to be highly competitive among many large identity solution companies, such as Sagem Morpho, L-1 Identity Solutions, NEC, and Cogent Systems. Proposals for this project are due August 15, 2008.