The Federal Bureau of Investigation's first AFI system was implemented in the late 1970's. Japan's NEC and the binational De La Rue Printrak began establishing their first installations in the early 1980's. NEC's first major system, installed in California, proved the value of AFI systems. NEC systems differ from other vendors in that fingerprint minutiae are traced by hand to locate them for the system. The use of a compression standard is expected to allow installations by different vendors in different cities to exchange data. For example, Alaska is a member of the Western Identification Network which connects various NEC installations in California, Washington, and Alaska and is available to the remaining western States as they add installations. Printrak is the current leader in AFI systems, and Florida has the largest number of Printrak installations. New AFI-AFR systems are continually coming on-line, and benefits of such systems are noted. 2 photographs