DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY OF FINGERPRINT CLASSIFICATION AND THE PROBLEMS OF SYSTEMATICALLY IDENTIFYING FINGERPRINT FEATURES THIS SYSTEM CONFINES ITSELF TO CLASSIFYING FINGERPRINT PATTERNS ACCORDING TO NINE TYPES: ARCHES, TENTED ARCHES, RADIAL PLAIN LOOPS, ULNAR PLAN LOOPS, SPECIAL LOOPS, CIRCULAR PATTERNS, ELLIPTICAL PATTERNS, COMPOSED PATTERNS, AND AMPUTATIONS OR DESTROYED PATTERNS. AFTER DESCRIBING THE CLASSIFICATION PROCEDURE, A SAMPLE SEARCH OF AN UNIDENTIFIED FINGERPRINT IS OUTLINED. OTHER APPLICATIONS OF THIS INFORMATION SYSTEM ARE BRIEFLY OUTLINED, INCLUDING THE DESCRIPTIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS FILE, THE MODUS OPERANDI/CRIME FILE, AND CASE FILES.