Electronic Facial Identification Technique (E-FIT) is a computer-based method that produce facial composites of wanted criminals based on eyewitness descriptions. Janina Kaminska at the UK Home Office proposed the term in 1984.
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Customers for this system exist around the world including Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), New York Police Department, the Swedish Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Scotland Yard and recently the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
The system is used both in every day cases and high profile events. In the United Kingdom, it is an ever present feature on the BBC's Crimewatch television program. It was actively used in a case where one of the Crimewatch presenters themselves became a victim of a stalker and murder. The system is available in Spanish, German, English (US&UK), French, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish.
The system has been programmed by John Platten from its inception at the UK Home Office. This reflects much of the history of the personal computer itself. Early personal computers only had green CRT screens so the first version relied on television studio hardware. It was ported to MSDOS when the first VGA screens appeared, then to Windows and finally rewritten for Microsoft .NET framework in 2004.
E-FIT has since gained a 3D facility, which is complex and seldom used, a clothing system used internally by the police and, most recently, colour.
The E-FIT and Pro-fit systems used in the UK have been subjected to a number of formal academic examinations, which typically show that both produce composites that are correctly named, either immediately or a few hours after construction, only about 20% of the time.[1][2][3] When witnesses are required to wait two days before constructing a composite, which matches real use more closely, however, naming falls to just a few percent at best.[4] The difficulty of accurately reproducing circumstances that prevail in real crimes, in academic studies, however, is a clear limitation.
During the early 1990s Greater Manchester Police's dedicated Facial Identification Unit recored over 55% success rate with the E-FITs created by their specialist officers.
It was later disbanded and the duties were handed over to the forces Scenes of Crime Officers. Who were expected to compile E-FIT composites in between taking scrime scene photogrpahs. The success rate fell dramatically.