Are your fingerprints on file?

[gusmahler]

I've been watching too much CSI and reading too many mysteries lately. They'll always mention AFIS, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System as a way to identify unknown persons.

But I've always wondered just how extensive the network is. One book I read said that only about 1 in 50 people have their fingerprints on file. But that book is about 10 years old, so I don't know how accurate the system is.

So for you Americans, if your fingerprints were found at a crime scene, could you be identified? Feel free to add why they'd be in the system.

For me, I've been fingerprinted twice: Department of Defense, and state bar admission.