Article 22 Specific rules for entering, verification or search with photographs and fingerprintsF1

Photographs and fingerprints shall only be entered following a special quality check to ascertain whether they fulfil minimum data quality standards. The specification of the special quality check shall be established in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 51(2).

Where photographs and fingerprint data are available in an alert in SIS II, such photographs and fingerprint data shall be used to confirm the identity of a person who has been located as a result of an alphanumeric search made in SIS II.

Fingerprint data may be searched in all cases to identify a person. However, fingerprint data shall be searched to identify a person where the identity of the person cannot be ascertained by other means. For that purpose, the Central SIS II shall contain an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).

Fingerprint data in SIS II in relation to alerts entered in accordance with Articles 24 and 26 may also be searched using complete or incomplete sets of fingerprints discovered at the scenes of serious crimes or terrorist offences under investigation, where it can be established to a high degree of probability that those sets of prints belong to a perpetrator of the offence and provided that the search is carried out simultaneously in the Member State's relevant national fingerprints databases.