(The Center Square) – King County voters may have to decide on a levy renewal to continue operations of the county’s program to provide fingerprint identification for public safety use.
The King County Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS, is a property tax-funded program that provides staffing and technology to support fingerprint identification for police, prosecutors, corrections, and medical examiners throughout King County.
The levy specifically funds 117 positions between King County and Seattle AFIS units.
The current levy rate for the program is set at 2.9 cents per $1,000 in assessed value, meaning the average King County home valued at $845,000 paid $24.5 toward the AFIS levy this year.
On Monday, the King County Budget and Fiscal Management Committee was briefed on a proposed levy renewal that would set a lower levy rate at 2.8 cents per $1,000 in assessed value.
This means that $845,000 home would pay $23 in 2026, if the renewal is approved by voters.
Next year there will not be any levy collection. Instead, AFIS will be funded through its undesignated fund balance.
Expenditures in 2025 are expected to total $29.5 million, including $4.6 million in election costs.
At the end of 2025, the program anticipates an undesignated fund balance of $10.5 million, which would be spent down to $4 million in the next seven years if the levy renewal is approved.
King County Regional AFIS Manager Mike Leahy told the committee that the lower levy rate has been set in order to spend down some of the fund’s remaining undesignated balance. He emphasized that this would be a status quo levy with no new initiative or large expenditures.
Since 1986, the AFIS program has been funded by a voter-approved property tax levy. In 2018, the latest levy renewal was passed by 55% of King County voters.
The AFIS database stores nearly 3 million records for matching to incoming and unidentified prints
The county claims that the program provides expert staff and up-to-date technology at a lower overall cost than if agencies funded their own criminal identification functions.
According to Leahy, the program’s forensic section has responded to more than 5,000 crime scenes and processed nearly 26,000 evidence items in its lab in the past 22 months.
The levy renewal would be placed on the April 22, 2025 ballot, pending approval by the King County Council. Collections would begin January 2026 and run through 2032.
