FBI Assembles Largest Biometric Database

Agency starts work on the world’s largest computer biometric database.

It’s going to cost $1 billion, but when it’s finished, the FBI’s major new project, the world’s largest computer database of biometrics is expected to helped it recognize more people, both on home soil and elsewhere.   In a story reported by the Washington Post, the agency already has digital images of faces, palms and fingerprints in its database.   But next month it will award a 10-year contract, with a cool $1 billion, to massively expand that data.   Called Next Generation Identification, it will assemble all digital biometric data in one place.