The New Mexico Department of Public Safety can search 24.9 million mug shots in the FBI’s Next Generation Identification Interstate Photo System (NGI-IPS) database (GAO). This database contains mug shots and corresponding fingerprint records submitted by various state and federal agencies.
The FBI can also request searches of New Mexico’s 2.9 million driver’s license photos (GAO). A 2014 DOJ-funded publication by the Police Executive Research Forum reported that police can run face recognition searches on the driver’s license photo database as well, although we have not been able to independently verify that. The New Mexico Department of Public Safety never responded to our public records request, filed in January 2016.
Sources and Notes: GAO (Last updated: August 2016). You can review our scorecard criteria in the Methodology section. Numerical citations, e.g. (123456), refer to official records available by clicking "View Documents" below.