The Texas Department of Public Safety's Crime Records Service has awarded its Group II Hard Fingerprint Card Conversion Project to Plano-based Mentalix. The contract involves scanning 1.4 million fingerprint cards from the Crime Records Service archives for subjects born prior to 1940. The resulting electronic files will be added to the state AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) database, which will enable easier access to the fingerprint records and reduce the need for manual comparisons. This project allows the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to attain complete conversion of all old fingerprint cards to electronic files and will assist with closing cold cases.

In addition to segmented and cropped fingerprint images, Mentalix is storing full images from both sides of each card, plus demographic data, in EBTS (Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification) format for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Many of the cards being scanned for this contract originate from the 1930’s or earlier. According to Dale Remmers, Mentalix's Chief Technology Officer, the age of the cards and the wide variety of formats involved also present an unusual challenge. "We're scanning multiple formats from various police departments and other states," Remmers says. "Now that we've automated the process of handling non-standard formats, we can easily apply the same methodology to other card conversion projects."

Read the complete press release for more details about this contract.  To see information about Mentalix's card conversion services, click here or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .