August 03, 2004

Fact Sheet

Forensic Document Laboratory (FDL)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Forensic Document Laboratory (FDL) provides a wide variety of forensic document analysis and operations support services to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programs, as well as to other U.S. and foreign governmental entities, to combat travel and identity document fraud.

FDL SERVICES

Services and products provided by the FDL include the following:

• Forensic examination of all disputed handwriting and hand printing;
• Forensic examination of any documents, foreign or domestic;
• Attempts to link multiple documents in one case through handwriting, stamp, and seal impressions, copy machines, or typewriters;
• Processing evidence for latent fingerprints in an attempt to identify the person(s) who handled documents and ink-to-ink fingerprint comparisons;
• Training and technical assistance in the detection of fraudulent documents;
• Document intelligence Alerts and other operational intelligence products;
• Assisting field officers via the Photophone and Image Storage and Retrieval System;
• Managing the FDL Library; and
• On-going liaison with other federal, state, local, and foreign government entities.

FDL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In the first six months of 2004, the FDL has received 2,289 cases. FDL has also completed 2,879 outstanding cases in this time period. The FDL responded to 2,415 requests for assistance via the Photophone and Image Storage and Retrieval System (ISRS), and produced 58 Document Intelligence Alerts.

In fiscal year 2003, the Forensic Document Laboratory received 5,804 forensic cases for examination and completed a total of 5,594 forensic cases. Also last year, the Operations Section’s Intelligence Officers trained more than 4,000 students from within DHS and ICE, and other federal, state, and local law enforcement officers and foreign government officials in fraudulent document recognition. Also last year, the FDL responded to 7,156 requests for assistance via the Photophone and Image Storage and Retrieval System (ISRS), and produced 140 Document Intelligence Alerts.

Criminal cases represent approximately 20 percent of the FDL’s forensic casework. While the FDL doesn’t statistically track such outcomes as conviction rates for criminal cases, ICE does know that nearly all of those cases in which the FDL provides expert testimony result in either convictions or plea bargains based on the conclusions of our forensic analysis.

Even in administrative cases, most often the most persuasive “evidence” guiding the judge or magistrate is the FDL Report of Findings. And each case where ICE’s document examiners and intelligence officers assist requesters in determining the identity of an alien, or the validity of a document, demonstrates the critical value of the FDL in supporting ICE’s law enforcement mission.

CONTACTING THE ICE FORENSIC DOCUMENT LABORATORY

The FDL is staffed a 365 days a year, including all federal holidays. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and Saturday, Sunday, and all federal holidays from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

# ICE #

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for the enforcement of border, economic, infrastructure and transportation security laws. ICE seeks to prevent acts of terrorism by targeting the people, money and materials that support terror and criminal networks.